News 12:00

BULLETIN 26 August 12 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# The High Court in Bloemfontein is to hear Cholota’s legal challenge to declare her arrest unlawful
# The MK Party Youth League stands firm behind Floyd Shivambu 
# And, cricket: The Proteas women start their national training camp in the run-up to the T20 World Cup

# The High Court in Bloemfontein will today hear former Free State premier Ace Magashule’s former personal assistant’s application to declare her recent arrest unlawful. Moroadi Cholota is contesting fraud and corruption charges related to the 255-million-rand asbestos case. Her lawyers filed an urgent application, arguing that her extradition from the US violated her rights. Cholota also wants the court to have her charges deemed invalid and to be struck off the roll. She is currently out on bail.

# The MK Party Youth League says it remains resolute in its defence of Floyd Shivambu’s appointment as National Organiser of the party. The former EFF deputy president, who joined the party about a week ago, will take control of political education, monitoring, governance and the establishment of structures. MK spokesperson, Nkateko Mkhabela, says the baseless criticism and online hostility directed at Shivambu are nothing more than desperate tactics by those who fear the progressive change the movement represents:

# AmaZulu King Misuzulu kaZwelithini has asked KwaZulu-Natal premier Thami Ntuli and Finance MEC Francois Rodgers to ensure no effort is spared to reinstate the Ithala Bank’s licence. The Financial Sector Conduct Authority suspended the beleaguered KZN development bank’s licence last week, as it had failed to meet financial soundness requirements. The king warns the suspension of the bank’s licence will jeopardise thousands of residents. He adds the services of Ithala are the backbone of rural and township entrepreneurs in the province and must not be disrupted.

# Cricket: The Proteas Women have convened in Durban for a national training camp, in preparation for the T20 World Cup. This follows a skills camp in Tshwane earlier this month. Interim head coach Dillon du Preez says the camp at Kingsmead will help ensure they have the best possible squad ready for the World Cup, starting in the United Arab Emirates in early October. The tournament was moved to the UAE last week because of the political turmoil in Bangladesh.

# The financial indicators: The dollar trades at 17-rand-81-cents and the euro at 19-rand-91-cents. One British pound costs 23-rand-50-cents and Bitcoin trades at 63-thousand-853-dollars-36-cents. Gold sells at two-thousand-523-dollars-4-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 79-dollars-89-cents a barrel.

# And finally, the Mpumalanga Tourism and Parks Agency says six lions are currently being monitored and seem to have settled well in the Kruger National Park. The agency’s spokesperson, Simphiwe Shungube, says the animals could not be moved back to the Riverside farm in Malelane where they came from as they had been chased away by new male lion coalitions and would have been killed or escaped again, posing a risk to communities:

Stay tuned for more news………….