News 13:00

BULLETIN 30 August 1 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# The Eastern Cape has the highest murder rate in South Africa
# Cape Forum warns the Western Cape faces a major impact from the planned teaching job cuts
# And, the UK government advertises for service providers to send irregular migrants home

# The Eastern Cape has the highest murder rate per capita in South Africa, with 17.6-percent of its population affected. The Western Cape follows with a rate of 15.3-percent, while KwaZulu-Natal stands at 12.3-percent. The Police ministry released the crime statistics for the fourth quarter of the 2023/’24 financial year and the first quarter of the 2024/’25 financial year. According to spokesperson Thulare Sekhukhune, the country recorded over six-thousand murders in total. He says Limpopo recorded the lowest murder rate:

# Civil rights organisation Cape Forum has cautioned that the Western Cape Education Department’s decision to cut over two-thousand teaching posts next year could have severe repercussions for the province. It warns that the cuts, driven by a 3.8-billion-rand budget deficit, risk undermining education quality, increasing class sizes, and worsening crime and economic growth. It adds that a federal approach to education in the province could have mitigated the impact of the department’s drastic decision.

# The Department of Health urges parents to ensure their children are up-to-date with vaccinations following an increase in rubella cases in Gauteng, the Western and the Eastern Cape, and KwaZulu-Natal. The department is rolling out the measles-rubella vaccine, which is administered at six and 12 months. The department’s Foster Mohale advised parents to report suspected cases of rubella or measles and keep symptomatic children home from school until they recover:

# Britain’s Labour government is planning a major surge in returns of irregular migrants to their own countries, as it tries to clear an asylum backlog. The interior ministry has posted a contract seeking commercial partners to support the reintegration into their home countries of people with no right to live in the UK. The advert says the ministry is seeking to identify service providers to help migrants return from the UK to eleven different countries. The countries are Albania, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Ghana, India, Iraq, Jamaica, Nigeria, Pakistan, Vietnam and Zimbabwe.

# Paralympic Games: Zambia’s athletes may still compete in Paris despite being banned from Wednesday’s opening ceremony because their travelling plans weren’t confirmed. The Zambian flag was absent when the participating athletes paraded along the Champs-Élysées in front of about 50-thousand spectators. The International Paralympic Committee says they had no communication from the team before yesterday morning, when they received proof the athletes were on their way. Only two people will represent Zambia in the French capital.

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 17-rand-63-cents and the euro at 19-rand-54-cents. One British pound costs 23-rand-25-cents and Bitcoin trades at 59-thousand-556-dollars-85-cents. Gold sells at two-thousand-525-dollars-10-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 78-dollars-98-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….