News 16:00

BULLETIN 10 April 4 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# The Police ministry targets community izimbizo in crime hotspots
# An alleged bully beef thief faces charges in New Zealand
# And, Olympics: World Athletics announces huge prize money for Paris gold medal winners

# The Police ministry is focusing on enhancing community policing in crime hotspots across three provinces. Spokesperson Lirandzu Themba cites Operation Shanela, resulting in 500-thousand arrests. Themba says Police minister Bheki Cele will lead the community izimbizo to address serious crimes tomorrow, Friday and Sunday in KwaZulu-Natal, Gauteng and the Western Cape respectively:

# Transport minister Sindisiwe Chikunga has announced the end of e-tolls in Gauteng and that motorists won’t pay e-tolls from Friday. She says that the provincial government will repurpose e-toll infrastructure, keeping cameras for road safety and crime recording. It’s uncertain if e-toll debt will be written off. She also cautioned that motorists seeking e-tags post-shutdown may pay outstanding accounts. She explained that e-tags will still work at toll plazas:

# An avid bully beef fan has burnt his fingers in New Zealand. Auckland police have charged the 39-year-old man with nine counts of theft after allegedly stealing bully beef worth 37-thousand-rand in several incidents since November last year. He was apprehended when he tried once too often to leave a shop with 20 cans of bully beef and other items without paying. Staff recognised him as the man sought for a number of retail thefts in the area, and police were called to take him away.

# Olympics: The 48 athletics gold medallists at the Paris Games will receive prize money of 926-thousand-rand each. The sport became the first to offer prize money at an Olympics, announcing silver and bronze medallists will earn prize money from the 2028 Games in Los Angeles onward. World Athletics’ president, Sebastian Coe, says this is the result of a decision made in 2015 that all the money the body receives from the International Olympic Committee for the Games must go directly back to the sport.

# The financial indicators: The dollar trades at 18-rand-49-cents and the euro at 20-rand-8-cents. One British pound costs 23-rand-48-cents and Bitcoin trades at 68-thousand-981-dollars-25-cents. Gold sells at two-thousand-349-dollars-8-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 89-dollars-93-cents a barrel.

# And finally, the widow of the late Chris Hani, Limpho (Diempoe), has criticised the current government, stating that it has failed her husband and the people. He was murdered on this day 31 years ago. Hani lamented the lack of political will to address the country’s challenges, slamming the need for stage 16 load-shedding. She also criticised Eskom’s lack of planning, citing the hefty expenditure of 35-billion-rand on diesel. At the Chris Hani commemoration in Ekurhuleni, she expressed her lifelong loyalty to the ANC:

Stay tuned for more news………….