News 09:00

BULLETIN 30 October 9 am

Good morning. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# ActionSA welcomes the recommendation to appoint Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi as national head of the Hawks
# March and March vows to continue protesting despite minister Cachalia’s urgent interdict
# And, an Australian court rules the mushroom killer Erin Patterson must spend the rest of her life in prison

# ActionSA supports the recommendation by acting Police minister Firoz Cachalia to appoint KwaZulu-Natal Police Commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi as the national head of the Hawks. Cachalia has submitted a Cabinet Memorandum seeking Cabinet’s concurrence for the appointment. ActionSA’s Stephan Gerber says this recommendation comes after months of investigations, commissions, parliamentary committees and mounting public pressure over the alleged infiltration of the police service by criminal elements operating within its ranks. He says Mkhwanazi brought these concerns into the national spotlight last year:

Forum for South Africa has also welcomed the recommendation. The unit has been without a permanent head since June 2025, when Godfrey Lebeya, who led it for years, retired. FORUM4SA leader Tebogo Mashilompane says South Africans have witnessed Mkhwanazi’s work and his public stance on issues of crime, corruption, political interference and accountability:

# March and March Movement leader Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma has accused government of attempting to silence the movement, rather than engage with its concerns about immigration enforcement and the treatment of South Africans. This comes after Police minister Firoz Cachalia secured an interim court interdict against the movement earlier this week, restricting its demonstrations in parts of Durban. The Durban High Court will today consider whether the restrictions should be made final. Ngobese-Zuma says protests will only stop when the government presents a plan to address the concerns raised by demonstrators.

# Australian mushroom murderer Erin Patterson has lost a bid to overturn her convictions. She was sentenced in September 2025 to life behind bars with a non-parole period of 33 years, after she killed three people with a meal laced with toxic mushrooms in 2023. A panel of three judges at the Supreme Court of Victoria in Melbourne found her original sentence too lenient, calling her crimes “extraordinarily cold and calculated”. They said the case involved such shocking criminality that fixing a non-parole period was inappropriate.

# Motorsport: Italian Kimi Antonelli, who is on the brink of clinching his first Formula One Drivers’ Championship title, is recovering from a viral illness. The Mercedes driver missed media day yesterday at the Mexico City Grand Prix as a precaution to give him the chance to rest ahead of the weekend. A top-nine finish in Sunday’s race will ensure Antonelli becomes the sport’s youngest world champion at 20 years old, breaking Sebastian Vettel’s record by three years. The first practice for the race is at 8:30 this evening.

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 16-rand-60-cents and the euro at 18-rand-58-cents. One British pound costs 22-rand-24-cents, and Bitcoin trades at 78-thousand-105-dollars. Gold sells at three-thousand-992-dollars-35-cents a fine ounce, and Brent crude oil is quoted at 116-dollars-91-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….