News 12:00

BULLETIN 6 August 12 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# Fedsas condemns MEC Chiloane’s investigation of Pretoria High School for Girls case
# Cape Town stakeholders unite against construction mafia in development projects
# And, Paralympic Games: Another eight names are added to Team SA

# The Federation of South African School Governing Bodies has condemned Gauteng Education MEC Matome Chiloane’s decision to appoint an independent investigation into Pretoria High School for Girls racial allegations. The learners were acquitted of charges, yet principal Phillipa Erasmus faces a 90-day suspension pending an investigation. Fedsas CEO Jaco Deacon threatens legal action against the MEC while the National Association of School Governing Bodies supports the independent probe.

# The City of Cape Town, Atterbury, Old Mutual Properties, and other stakeholders have pledged to eliminate the construction mafia from development projects. Atterbury CEO Louis van der Watt emphasises the difficulty of detecting criminal entities, and emphasises the need for collaboration with national and local government, to help identify these entities. Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis committed to maintaining an updated blacklist and enhancing security. The initiative aims to ensure safe and ethical development environments through collaboration, improved vetting, and transparency.

# Minister of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation, Maropene Ramokgopa, is calling on stakeholders to work together to intensify existing public awareness campaigns on the dangers of rail level crossings. The minister conducted a site visit to the Tsantsabane Municipality in the Northern Cape where an accident involving a Transnet train and a truck at a rail level crossing near Groenwater occurred on Sunday. Three adults and a child died. Ramokgopa says a multisectoral approach is needed to minimise rail level crossing accidents:

# A United Nations investigation has found that nine employees from its main agency for Palestinian humanitarian relief, UNWRA, may have been involved in the seven October Hamas-led attack on Israel last year. About one-thousand-200 people were killed and over 200 were taken hostage to Gaza. UN deputy spokesperson, Farhan Haq, who did not specify what the precise involvement of the nine may have been, says they have all been fired:

# Paralympic Games: The South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee has added another eight names to Team SA’s squad for the Games in Paris, starting on the 28th of this month. Notable inclusions are double Grand Slam wheelchair tennis champion Kgothatso Montjane, and para-triathlete Kirsty Weir. The financial incentives will see gold medallists be awarded 400-thousand-rand, silver 200-thousand-rand and bronze 75-thousand-rand.  At the Tokyo Paralympics, South Africa ended with seven medals: four gold, one silver and two bronze.

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 18-rand-53-cents and the euro at 20-rand-25-cents. One British pound costs 23-rand-60-cents and Bitcoin trades at 55-thousand-825-dollars-23-cents. Gold sells at two-thousand-414-dollars-15-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 76-dollars-29-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….