News 09:00

BULLETIN 18 April 9 am

Good morning. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# The UDM says South Africa needs better plans to prepare for natural disasters
# The FF Plus says the ANC’s poor governance has led to the closure of hospital theatres
# And video streaming threatens to kill the movie theatre industry

# UDM says government needs to urgently implement full strategies for disaster preparedness and response, and make South Africans more aware of the implications of natural disasters. This comes as heavy rains battered KwaZulu-Natal leaving five dead in Margate earlier this week. UDM’s secretary-general, Yongama Zigebe, says the government must also increase investment in infrastructure to withstand the growing threat of extreme weather events linked to climate change:

# The Freedom Front Plus says as a result of the Gauteng Department of Health’s poor financial management, more than 500 patients at Leratong Hospital have not been able to undergo much-needed operations. The hospital’s eight theatre units have not been working after a disgruntled supplier electronically soft-locked the facility’s air conditioning unit. This led to the shutdown of theatres. The FF Plus says Last year, the department undertook to pay approved service providers within a month, but it is failing to do so.

# The Cape Winelands District Municipality’s Fire Services has managed to fully contain the Du Toit’s Kloof pass fire. Yesterday afternoon the fire burned away from the N1, into the higher cliffs of the mountain. The municipality’s spokesperson, Jo-Anne Otto says firefighters will monitor the area for any flare-ups:

# Tennis: Twenty-two-time Grand Slam champion Rafael Nadal says he is encouraged by how he played in the Barcelona Open. The 12-time champion lost, 7-5, 6-1, to world number eleven Australia’s Alex de Minaur in round two. This was the Spaniard’s first tournament after a three-month absence due to injury. Greece’s Stefanos Tsitsipas defeated Austrian Sebastian Ofner, 6-4, 7-5, in the round of 32 in Spain. Nadal says he is happy that he can still be competitive:

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 18-rand-98-cents and the euro at 20-rand-28-cents. One British pound costs 23-rand-68-cents and Bitcoin trades at 62-thousand-53-dollars-19-cents. Gold sells at two-thousand-374-dollars-79-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 87-dollars-50-cents a barrel.

# And finally, Ster-Kinekor’s plans to close nine cinemas are ascribed partially to the growth of online video streaming. The movie theatre group is also reviewing several other theatres and will lay off hundreds of employees. The group says attendance at its theatres showed a huge decline. It says this is also the result of a challenging economic environment, load-shedding and the impact of the Hollywood actors and writers’ strike that led to content planned for release last year and this year now only being released in 2025.

Stay tuned for more news………….