News 12:00

BULLETIN 19 March 12 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# The DA in Gauteng wants clarity on the timeline for switching off the e-toll gantries
# ActionSA in the Western Cape wants answers on the challenges facing the anti-gang unit 
# And Commonwealth Games: Malaysia may host a downsized event in 2026

# The DA in Gauteng is calling on premier Panyaza Lesufi to provide a clear timeline of when the e-toll gantries will be switched off. In his state of the province address, the premier said the gantries would be switched off by the 31st of this month. The party’s Dorianne Arendse says for this to happen, the switching off must be gazetted 14 days before the proposed date, but this has not yet happened:

# ActionSA in the Western Cape says it will write to Police minister Bheki Cele seeking answers for the ongoing challenges plaguing the anti-gang unit. The unit was announced by president Cyril Ramaphosa in 2018, as an intervention to curb the bloodshed in the province. ActionSA’s provincial premier candidate, Angela Sobey, says the unit has deteriorated into an under-resourced, leaderless unit with little capacity to effectively confront the gang violence terrorising communities:

# Minister of Justice and Correctional Services, Ronald Lamola, has approved and transmitted a request for the extradition of Siyabonga and Malusi Ndimande from Eswatini to South Africa. The brothers are linked to the murders of rapper Kiernan AKA Forbes and his friend, Tebello Motsoane, in Durban last year. A total of seven suspects have been arrested in connection with the murders. The department’s spokesperson, Chrispin Phiri, says South Africa is ready to cooperate with Eswatini on this matter:

# Commonwealth Games: Malaysia’s government will decide this week if it will host a downsized Games in 2026 while the Commonwealth Games Federation is struggling to get a new host. The Australian state of Victoria withdrew last year due to spiralling costs. It later agreed to pay a 4.5-billion-rand settlement offer. The federation offered Malaysia 2.4-billion-rand to organise the event it last hosted in 1998. Cost-cutting measures will include smaller opening and closing ceremonies, using standard hotels and accommodation for athletes, and only ten sports instead of 15.

# The financial indicators: The dollar trades at 19-rand-1-cent and the euro at 20-rand-62-cents. One British pound costs 24-rand-12-cents and Bitcoin trades at 63-thousand-561-dollars-92-cents. Gold sells at two-thousand-150-dollars-77-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 86-dollars-76-cents a barrel.

# And finally: Conservationists plan to exterminate mice on Marion Island, where the population has soared to more than a million as climate change has raised temperatures. The mice were brought to the South African territory near Antarctica about 200 years ago on seal hunter ships. They are now feasting on seabirds causing major harm in a special nature reserve with unique biodiversity. During the mass extermination planned for 2027, six helicopters will dump 550 tonnes of rodent poison. The bait has been designed to not affect the soil, water sources, or seabirds.

Stay tuned for more news………….