News 15:00

BULLETIN 20 May 3 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# The IEC says Jacob Zuma’s photo will remain on the ballot papers following the Constitutional Court judgment
# The improved energy availability factor contributes to 54 days of no load-shedding  
# And tennis: Two movements among the men’s top ten in the latest world rankings

# The Electoral Commission says former president Jacob Zuma’s photo will still feature on ballot papers for the elections, despite his name being removed as a candidate for the MK Party. This follows the Constitutional Court judgment clarifying the commission’s role in qualifying candidates for the National Assembly. The court ruled that Zuma, having been sentenced to 15 months in jail for contempt of court for disobeying a previous court order, cannot return to Parliament. The judgment allows the commission to proceed with election preparations without concerns of legal challenges.

# Electricity minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa has announced that South Africa has been without load-shedding for 54 days due to the improvement of the energy availability factor. This improved by nine-percentage-points to 60.7-percent. Ramokgopa confirmed that the unplanned capability loss factor has decreased to 28-percent from 35-percent. He attributes the improvement of performance to the aggressive maintenance recovery efforts as Eskom reaches a three-year high in planned maintenance while keeping units operational:

# Eastern Cape police have launched a manhunt for suspects after seven people, including an eight-year-old girl, were shot and killed in Nxanxashe, Willowvale, over the weekend. Police received information during the early hours of yesterday morning of multiple shootings where five men and two women were shot in their Mazda 3 vehicle, while another person was found dead about a kilometre away in a Toyota Fortuner. Police spokesperson Priscilla Naidu says an abandoned Volkswagen Polo with blood stains was also found:

# Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Naledi Pandor, has expressed condolences to Iran following the death of her counterpart, Foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, who died in a helicopter crash. Amir-Abdollahian died alongside Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi and others in the crash near the Azerbaijan border yesterday. His death comes amid Israel’s war against Iran-backed Hamas. Pandor has recalled their collaborative work and shared meetings at multilateral forums:

# Tennis: The latest world rankings for men sees two changes among the top ten. Alexander Zverev of Germany leap-frogged Russian Daniil Medvedev into fourth place after winning the Italian Open yesterday. Hubert Hurkacz of Poland replaced Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece in eighth position. Novak Djokovic is still first, followed by Jannik Sinner of Italy and Carlos Alcaraz of Spain. Andrey Rublev of Russia is sixth, Casper Ruud of Norway seventh, and Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria tenth.

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 18-rand-22-cents and the euro at 19-rand-79-cents. One British pound costs 23-rand-13-cents and Bitcoin trades at 67-thousand-245-dollars-3-cents. Gold sells at two-thousand-434-dollars-20-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 83-dollars-72-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….