News 15:00

BULLETIN 15 October 3 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# The Lusikisiki murder accused abandons his bail application
# The case against the driver in a fatal Carletonville learner transport crash is postponed to January
# And soccer: A victory for Bafana in Brazzaville tonight will secure their place in next year’s Afcon

# The man accused of murdering 18 family members in the Ngobozana Village in Lusikisiki in the Eastern Cape has abandoned his bail application. Siphosoxolo Myekethe appeared in the local Magistrate’s Court again today. Myekethe had been out on parole at the time of the massacre. He faces 18 charges of murder and one of possessing an unlicensed AK-47 rifle. The case has been postponed to 26 November for further investigations and ballistic test results. 

# The case against Gert Laurence van Emmenis, charged with 12 counts of culpable homicide and reckless driving, has been postponed to 20 January 2025. The 55-year-old driver was involved in a crash on JB Marx Road in Fochville in July that killed 11 learners and their driver. He is out on 20-thousand-rand bail with conditions, including surrendering his passport and avoiding contact with witnesses.

Meanwhile, the Road Accident Fund is extending its influential Defensive Driver Workshops to learner transport drivers to save the lives of children across the country. The fund’s Siphamandla Gumbi says according to statistics, an average of 827 children between the ages of five and 14 were killed on South African roads annually between 2018 and 2022. He says many of these children were pedestrians which represented 66-percent of the cases, followed by passengers at 33-percent:

# Gauteng DA leader Solly Msimanga claims premier Panyaza Lesufi is protecting corrupt officials by withholding forensic investigation reports. The DA has repeatedly requested the release of completed reports, including audits into the Department of Social Development. Msimanga says failure to publish these reports hinders transparency and service delivery. He confirmed the DA’s plans to escalate the matter to the Public Protector:

# Soccer: Bafana Bafana takes on Congo in the second leg of their Africa Cup of Nations qualifier in Brazzaville today, and South African coach Hugo Broos is concerned about the state of the synthetic pitch. Bafana demolished Congo 5-nil in Friday’s first leg in Gqeberha and only needs another three points to qualify for next year’s tournament in Morocco. Victory today will secure their place in the event. Broos says they’ve already had bad experiences with synthetic pitches that are not in a good state.

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 17-rand-60-cents and the euro at 19-rand-19-cents. One British pound costs 23-rand-2-cents and Bitcoin trades at 65-thousand-429-dollars-83-cents. Gold sells at two-thousand-652-dollars-73-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 74-dollars-9-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….