News 09:00

BULLETIN 16 October 9 am

Good morning. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# Shamila Batohi wants more support from Parliament
# Minister Groenewald clears the parole application backlog
# And a record number of early voters turn out in Georgia in the USA

# National Director of Public Prosecutions, Shamila Batohi, says there has been no interruption of the National Prosecuting Authority’s work, affirming that the entity operates independently. She was part of the Institute for Security Studies’ webinar on future-proofing the NPA yesterday. Batohi says financial and operational indecency has undermined the leadership of the NPA. She added that she does not feel supported by Parliament’s portfolio committee on Justice and Constitutional Development:

# Minister of Correctional Services, Pieter Groenewald, has approved 23 parole applications and has granted one case of day parole. Among those granted parole were three foreign nationals who were serving life sentences, two from Mozambique and one from Zimbabwe. They are set to be deported back to their respective countries. The department says the inherited parole backlog of 495 cases and 104 new cases have been concluded. Last month, Parliament called for an overhaul of the country’s parole system, particularly medical parole.

# The DA in Gauteng says it will be referring allegations of widespread corruption at the provincial Department of Education to the Public Service Commission. Officials of the department are accused of corruption, including soliciting and accepting bribes to manipulate tender processes. The DA’s, Sergio Isa Dos Santos, says they want to know if an investigation has been instituted regarding the allegations of corruption in the awarding of the three-billion-rand School Nutrition Programme tender:

# The US state of Georgia has reported a record day of early voting with more than 300-thousand votes cast yesterday. This number is 123-percent higher than the previous record for the first day of voting. Historically, large turnouts for early voting have favoured Democrats. Poll workers in the state’s six-thousand-500 voting precincts will only start counting votes on election night on the fifth of November. Georgia, with its 16 Electoral College votes, is one of seven tightly fought swing states.

# Soccer: Former Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel has reportedly agreed to become England’s new manager. The 51-year-old will succeed Gareth Southgate, who resigned after the European Championship in July, in which England were defeated two-one by Spain in the final. The German will become the third non-Englishman to hold the post after Sven-Goran Eriksson and Fabio Capello. Tuchel’s main target will be leading England through qualification for the 2026 World Cup which will take place in the US, Canada, and Mexico.

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 17-rand-61-cents and the euro at 19-rand-18-cents. One British pound costs 23-rand-3-cents and Bitcoin trades at 67-thousand-109-dollars-60-cents. Gold sells at two-thousand-667-dollars-50-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 74-dollars-43-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….