News 14:00

BULLETIN 4 October 2 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# The office of the Chief Justice condemns Busisiwe Mkhwebane’s attacks on the judiciary
# An Israeli air strike cuts Lebanon off from Syria
# And rugby: Local URC teams are strengthened with the return of some Springboks for this weekend’s games

# The office of the Chief Justice says it is disappointed by racially charged comments made by former Public Protector and EFF member of Parliament, Busisiwe Mkhwebane, directed at Supreme Court of Appeal Judge, Visvanathan Ponnan. She blames Indians for her legal woes. The office of the Chief Justice says South Africa is founded on the values of human dignity, the achievement of equality and the advancement of human rights and freedoms, non-racialism and non-sexism, supremacy of the Constitution and the rule of law, as affirmed in the Constitution.

# The DA demands that the ANC act in a manner that is reasonable and in the best interest of the public in setting up the joint committees of Parliament. The DA’s George Michalakis says this process cannot continue to be delayed. He says in July, the DA and the ANC agreed to split the chairpersonships of the joint committees equally, the only dispute being who would send a chairperson from the National Assembly and National Council of Provinces, respectively:

# Save South Africa Civic Movement rejects the call made by the City of Johannesburg in renaming Sandton Drive to Leila Khaled Drive. Movement spokesperson Tebogo Mashilompane says the fact that Israel and Palestine are at war and South Africa has sided with Palestine must not be equal to renaming the road to Leila Khaled Drive:

Meanwhile, Lebanon says an Israeli air strike on the Syrian border today cut off the main international road linking the two countries. Coastal Lebanon shares a border with Israel, with which Hezbollah is at war, and Syria, where tens of thousands of people have taken refuge from the violence engulfing the country. Israel has said Hezbollah uses the road to bring weapons across the border from Syria, which is its ally.

# Rugby: The South African teams in the United Rugby Championship should be strengthened with the return of some of their Springboks for this weekend’s games. This follows last week’s first round when there were victories for the Lions and the Bulls, and losses for the Stormers and the Sharks. The Lions host Edinburgh at Ellis Park tomorrow afternoon, and the Bulls will welcome Ulster to Loftus. The Sharks are away to Dragons in Newport, Wales, and the Stormers take on Zebre in Parma, Italy.

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 17-rand-43-cents and the euro at 19-rand-23-cents. One British pound costs 22-rand-97-cents and Bitcoin trades at 61-thousand-260-dollars-75-cents. Gold sells at two-thousand-659-dollars-13-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 78-dollars-51-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….