News 15:00

BULLETIN 5 October 3 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# The Judicial Service Commission starts interviews for three Supreme Court of Appeal vacancies
# A Johannesburg Central kidnapping victim is found alive in Randfontein
# And rugby: Returning Boks could strengthen the Stormers’ team for the Sharks derby

# The Judicial Service Commission interviews’ begin in Sandton, Johannesburg, today to fill three vacancies at the Supreme Court of Appeal. Five candidates will be interviewed for South Africa’s second-highest court – Judges Gerald Bloem, Busisiwe Masipa, Ingrid Opperman, Violet Phatshoane and Esther Steyn. Chief Justice Mandisa Maya will lead the two-week process to fill 22 vacancies across superior courts. The SCA interviews are critical amid criticism over delayed judgments and capacity constraints.

# A kidnapped man has been rescued unharmed, and five suspects arrested after an intelligence-driven operation linked to a case at Johannesburg Central SAPS. The un-named man was allegedly kidnapped in the Johannesburg CBD on 30 August, with a 32-million-rand ransom demanded. Police spokesperson Dimakatso Nevhuhulwi says a team of Central detectives, Crime Intelligence, Anti-Kidnapping unit, Flying Squad and private security traced three men found with the phone allegedly used for ransom calls:

# Ekurhuleni’s mayoral committee member for Finance and Strategy, Jongizizwe Dlabathi, says the tabled 70.9-billion-rand budget for the 2026/27 financial year, will strengthen and rebuild municipal capacity. The Gauteng metro is addressing revenue collection shortfalls and liquidity pressures. He says the city has also reduced its borrowing requirements, while focusing on fixing billing systems, improving governance and maintaining key infrastructure:

Moving abroad:

# Ukraine is scrambling to find money to keep fighting as Russian strikes cripple key industries and drive up the cost of the war. Ukraine spent almost 740-billion-rand on defence in the first nine months of this year, while collecting just over 700-billion-rand in tax revenue. The government says it faces a 935-billion-rand funding including about 450-billion-rand for military spending. Russian attacks have also hit factories, ports and railways, while grain exports fell sharply. Ukraine is seeking more foreign funding and wants to use frozen Russian assets to help fill the gap.

# Rugby: Stormers director of rugby John Dobson plans on strengthening his team with returning Springboks for this coming weekend’s United Rugby Championship home derby against the Sharks. The Cape Town team started the season with victory over Connacht in Ireland before losing to Edinburgh in Scotland. The Boks who could be considered for their third round match are Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, Damian Willemse, Wilco Louw, Paul de Villiers, Deon Fourie and Cobus Reinach. Dobson says they specifically need to fix their lineouts against the Sharks on Saturday.

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 16-rand-61-cents and the euro at 18-rand-62-cents. One British pound costs 21-rand-97-cents and Bitcoin trades at 86-thousand-187-dollars. Gold sells at four-thousand-164-dollars-30-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 105-dollars-33-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….