News 11:00

BULLETIN 26 September 11 am

Good morning. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# The MK Party misses a court deadline on its election-rigging case
# The DA says ActionSA plunged Tshwane into instability
# And the world’s longest-serving death row prisoner is released

# The MK Party has missed an Electoral Court deadline to submit heads of argument on why it should not receive a punitive costs order for the abandonment of its election rigging case. The party withdrew its challenge on the validity of the May elections, where it alleged that more than 9.3 million votes were unaccounted for. It also claimed it had evidence of serious irregularities. In court papers, the IEC says from the start MK had no evidence of vote rigging, yet it persisted in making scandalous and prejudicial allegations.

# Cosatu is urging the National Energy Regulator of South Africa to reject Eskom’s controversial multi-year revenue application up until 2028. The power utility’s application proposes a 36.15-percent hike during its 2026 financial year; 11.81-percent in 2027 and 9.10-percent in 2028. Cosatu’s spokesperson, Zanele Sabela, says government must intensify its support for Eskom to reduce its dependency on double-digit tariff hikes:

# The DA in Tshwane says ActionSA’s withdrawal from the Tshwane multi-party coalition has plunged the metro into political instability. A motion of no confidence vote in mayor Cilliers Brink is set to take place today. The motion was brought by the ANC, who said Brink’s 18 months in charge of Tshwane had been disastrous. The DA says all attempts to reach an agreement with the ANC have failed, and with the support of the EFF and ActionSA, the motion of no confidence in Brink will succeed.

# A Japanese court has found Iwao Hakamata, who was wrongfully sentenced to death in 1968 for murdering a family of four, not guilty in a retrial. The 88-year-old, who is the world’s longest-serving death row prisoner, was granted a retrial in 2014 after a DNA test on blood found on his trousers revealed no match to the victims. This led to his release due to his age and fragile mental state after more than 30 years on death row. The state has two weeks to appeal.

# Rugby: Sam Cane will play his 100th Test for New Zealand on Saturday after being named in the starting lineup to face Australia in the final Rugby Championship match in Wellington. Beauden Barrett returns after illness and will partner scrumhalf TJ Perenara, who has replaced Cortez Ratima. Anton Lienert-Brown comes in at inside centre for Jordie Barrett, who has a knee injury, and Damian McKenzie drops to the bench. Coach Scott Robertson says they would have loved to win the championship:

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 17-rand-15-cents and the euro at 19-rand-14-cents. One British pound costs 22-rand-91-cents and Bitcoin trades at 63-thousand-699-dollars-24-cents. Gold sells at two-thousand-662-dollars-49-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 73-dollars-71-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….