News 15:00

BULLETIN 14 October 3 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# The Special Investigating Unit will probe19 Eastern Cape Health Department contracts
# ActionSA wants a probe into the over four-million-rand spent at the Helen Joseph Women’s Hostel
# And a busy highway in Pretoria is closed after a diesel tanker caught fire

# The Special Investigating Unit will probe 19 contracts awarded by the Eastern Cape Health Department after president Cyril Ramaphosa authorised an investigation. The probe covers potential violations in supply chain management between August 2022 and this month, including irregularities in meat supply tenders. The SIU aims to uncover fraud and maladministration. This follows a break-in at the department’s offices last month, where critical procurement documents were stolen, raising concerns about corruption.

# ActionSA in Johannesburg is calling for an urgent investigation into the roof and ceiling installation at the Helen Joseph Women’s Hostel in Alexandra. The metro’s Human Settlements Department says it spent over four-million-rand on the installation. ActionSA’s Omphemetse Matabane says the work done at the facility does not reflect the amount spent on the project and there are missing links on the invoice:

# Only one case of extortion was reported to the Western Cape police extortion hotline since September last year. This is according to a parliamentary response to a question posed by the DA’s Thomas Walters. Last week, 12 people, including police members, were arrested for extortion-related crimes at foreign-owned businesses in Cape Town. Walters says it is clear that extortion will not be dealt with until the police service overhauls its response to the issue:

# The N4 Highway in Pretoria has been closed and traffic is being rerouted to alternative routes after a 38-thousand litre diesel tanker caught fire. City of Tshwane Emergency Services are on the scene just before the M17 in Pretoria North. Multiple firefighting services have been deployed. No injuries have been reported.

# Rugby: Former Welsh and British and Irish Lions centre Jonathan Davies has hung up his boots. The 36-year-old played 96 Tests for his country since 2009, scoring 80 points, and represented the Lions in six tour matches in 2013 and ’17. He also played 179 games for Scarlets during two stints in which he contributed 255 points. Davies says he will miss the camaraderie of his team mates, but it was time to bring down the curtain on a career he was incredibly proud of.

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 17-rand-54-cents and the euro at 19-rand-15-cents. One British pound costs 22-rand-88-cents and Bitcoin trades at 64-thousand-922-dollars-49-cents. Gold sells at two-thousand-654-dollars-18-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 77-dollars-14-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….