News 13:00

BULLETIN 20 May 1 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# The Constitutional Court rules Jacob Zuma is not eligible for Parliament
# The EU’s new regulation on waste shipments comes into effect 
# And the FF Plus says the excellence of others becomes an embarrassment for the ANC 

# The Constitutional Court has ruled that the former president and leader of the MK Party, Jacob Zuma, cannot return to Parliament. The court earlier found Zuma in contempt for disobeying a previous court order, which is considered a crime. Delivering the judgment, Justice Leona Theron says despite arguments Zuma’s sentence was reduced, the court maintained that the original sentence exceeded 12-months, disqualifying him from parliamentary eligibility in terms of the Constitution:

Meanwhile, the Gqeberha-based National Alliance has resolved to support the GOOD Party in the May 29 general elections. The alliance emerged as the fourth largest party in the Nelson Mandela Bay Metro in the 2021 local government elections, but chose not to contest the elections this year. GOOD’s Janke Tolmay says the alliance agrees that GOOD best represents the values and interests of its members and supporters:

# New rules come into effect today to ensure the European Union takes greater responsibility for its waste. The new Waste Shipments Regulation sets out stricter rules on the export of waste to non-EU countries. These exports have increased by 72-percent since 2004, amounting to 35 million tons per year last year. The new regulation also provides more deterrent sanctions against criminals involved in illicit waste trade.

# The Freedom Front Plus says it is concerning that the South African Rugby Union is continually under pressure from government to achieve certain transformation targets. A comprehensive 206-page audit compiled by Saru states that the Springboks and other teams in the country fell short of their transformation targets last year. The FF Plus’s Heloïse Denner says Rassie Erasmus and his team have done more for transformation and nation-building in recent years than the ANC could manage in 30 years:

# The financial indicators: The dollar trades at 18-rand-16-cents and the euro at 19-rand-75-cents. One British pound costs 23-rand-7-cents and Bitcoin trades at 66-thousand-931-dollars-52-cents. Gold sells at two-thousand-445-dollars-92-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 83-dollars-84-cents a barrel.

# And finally: A teenage coding and robotics team called Team Checkmate has created a groundbreaking chess board for the blind. The idea was inspired by teammate Jair February’s desire to play chess with his blind mother. The youngsters are from Booster Kids, a school in Cape Town that offers mobile science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics classes. Team Checkmate is made up of Jair, Ryan Fortuin and Abigail Schubert, and they are set to represent South Africa in the 2024 Asia Pacific Open Championship First Lego League in Australia in July.

Stay tuned for more news………….