News 14:00

BULLETIN 15 August 2 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# EFF deputy president Floyd Shivambu announces his resignation to join Zuma’s MK Party  
# The state officially withdraws its case against 95 Libyan nationals arrested in Mpumalanga
# And, rugby: Joe Schmidt makes several changes to the Wallabies team for the Perth Test against the Boks

# EFF deputy president Floyd Shivambu has requested to be released from all his duties within the party and Parliament. This request follows his resignation amid allegations implicating him and EFF leader Julius Malema in the VBS Mutual Bank looting scandal. The bank’s former chairperson, Tshifhiwa Matodzi’s affidavit claims Shivambu and Malema received over 16-million-rand from the bank through a front company linked to Shivambu’s brother. 

Shivambo announced at a new conference he will join former president Jacob Zuma’s MK Party.

# The case against 95 Libyan nationals has been withdrawn in the White River Magistrate’s Court in Mpumalanga. The Libyans, arrested at a military training facility last month, will be handed over to the Home Affairs Department for deportation. They were charged with allegedly entering South Africa with visas obtained through misrepresentation. The National Prosecuting Authority’s Monica Nyuswa says all charges have been dropped:

# The Gauteng Health Department has returned 570-million-rand to Treasury after failing to spend 1.1-billion-rand of its 2023/24 budget. According to the head of Health, Arnold Malotana, the department secured approval to roll over only 530-million-rand for the current financial year. He revealed this at a legislature meeting, where he also disclosed that 3.45-billion-rand is owed to suppliers. The DA’s Jack Bloom says this has a huge impact on patients:

# Climate activists demonstrated at four German airports today, glueing themselves to the tarmac and briefly bringing air traffic to a halt at two before being arrested. Activist group Last Generation said its members had entered the airports Cologne-Bonn, Nuremberg, Berlin and Stuttgart, unfurling banners reading “Oil kills”. All eight activists involved were arrested. Last Generation is known for mounting eye-catching protests, like throwing mashed potatoes at paintings in museums and glueing themselves onto busy roads.

# Rugby: Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt rang the changes to his team for Saturday’s second Rugby Championship Test against the Springboks in Perth. Two of South Africa’s notorious foes, winger Marike Koroibete and scrumhalf Nic White, are back to strengthen the team that went down 33-7 to the world champions in the first Test in Brisbane. Schmidt reportedly believes their experience will help Australia against the number of rookies in South Africa’s squad. Loosehead prop Angus Bell also returns, and hooker Josh Nasser gets his first start.

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 18-rand-1-cents and the euro at 19-rand-84-cents. One British pound costs 23-rand-17-cents and Bitcoin trades at 58-thousand-374-dollars-55-cents. Gold sells at two-thousand-459-dollars-46-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 80-dollars-23-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….