News 14:00

BULLETIN 4 September 2 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# Cosatu says the tide against corruption appears to be turning 
# BOSA calls for a declaration of war on crime amid police ineffectiveness
# And, Paralympic Games: Pieter du Preez wins bronze in Paris

# Cosatu says it is pleased to see that under the leadership of president Cyril Ramaphosa, the tide against corruption appears to be slowly turning. This comes as former Passenger Rail Association of South Africa’s head of engineering, Daniel Mthimkhulu, was sentenced to 15 years in prison yesterday for falsifying his qualifications and other documents. Cosatu’s spokesperson, Zanele Sabela, says Mthimkhulu’s involvement placed Prasa’s projects under considerable risk and exposed the entity to liability it could not have foreseen:

# Build One South Africa is demanding a declaration of war on crime, citing the ineffectiveness of the police in addressing escalating criminal activities. According to the party, with 500 murders per week and only 22-thousand detectives nationwide, current police capacity is insufficient. In a parliamentary debate, BOSA leader, Mmusi Maimane, called for immediate action to restore police stations as places of hope, foster community collaboration, and restore safety and order:

# Health minister Aaron Motsoaledi has urged pharmacists to take an active role in vaccine manufacturing amid rising infectious diseases. Speaking at the inaugural Pharmacists International Federation Congress in Cape Town, Motsoaledi emphasised the urgent need for affordable vaccines and remedies while condemning the hoarding seen during Covid-19. He highlighs the future challenges of non-communicable diseases and calls on pharmacists to advocate for equitable health policies, and a more inclusive healthcare system.

Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation says just more than 161-thousand children under the age of ten were vaccinated against polio in Gaza since Sunday. Israel and Hamas agreed to a series of localised pauses in the fighting to allow health workers to administer vaccines. Gaza’s first confirmed case in 25-years last month left a ten-month-old baby partially paralysed. The aim is to vaccinate a total of 640-thousand children. The re-emergence of polio is blamed on the disruption of child vaccination programmes as well as massive damage to water and sanitation systems.

# Paralympic Games: Pieter du Preez has secured South Africa’s third medal in Paris, winning bronze in the H1 para-cycling category. He finished the individual time trial in 36-minutes-7.05 seconds behind Italy’s Fabrizio Cornegliani and Belgium’s Maxime Hordies. The H1 category is for athletes with severe movement impairments. Du Preez is a decorated athlete, having won gold at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics and multiple world championships. South African-born Irmgard Bensusan, who participates for Germany, won silver in the T64-200-meter.

# And, the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 17-rand-91-cents and the euro at 19-rand-80-cents. One British pound costs 23-rand-49-cents and Bitcoin trades at 56-thousand-536-dollars-99-cents. Gold sells at two-thousand-482-dollars-89-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 73-dollars-30-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….