News 08:00

BULLETIN 18 October 8 am

Good morning. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# Eskom is strengthening its executive team to ensure long-term sustainability
# All the learners admitted to the hospital for food poisoning in Gauteng have been discharged
# And Kamala Harris says the death of the Hamas leader is an opportunity to end the war in Gaza

# Eskom says it is aligning its executive execution capability and capacity, to focus its skilled people in the best structure where they can deliver value the fastest. CEO Dan Marokane has appointed the first four of seven new executives. They are Corporate Services, Portia Mngomezulu, Strategy and Sustainability, Nontokozo Hadebe, Group Capital, Roman Crookes, and Chief Information and Technology Officer, Len de Villiers. Eskom’s spokesperson, Daphne Mokwena, says the appointments will address the current business challenges and future-proof the power utility:

# Vodacom’s appeal of the Supreme Court of Appeal ruling over Please Call Me Nkosana Makate’s payout will be heard in the Constitutional Court next month. The SCA aside a 47-million-rand offer that CEO Shameel Joosub made to Makate, which he rejected. The court ordered in February that Makate be paid five-to-7.5-percent of the total voice revenue generated by the Please Call Me service over 18 years from March 2001. Vodacom says Makate is not entitled to an annuity for life compensation for being the brains behind the free service.

# The Gauteng Education Department says all learners admitted to hospitals in Hammanskraal and Bronkhortspruit with suspected food poisoning this week have been discharged. Forty-seven Rapelego Primary School learners, in Hammanskraal, were hospitalised on Monday, after eating chocolates with a June expiry date. On Thursday, 25 learners from Mshuluzane Mayisela Primary School in Bronkhorstspruit got sick after allegedly consuming snacks purchased from street vendors outside the school. The department says it is working closely with health authorities to ensure that such incidents do not happen again.

# US vice president Kamala Harris has hailed the death of Hamas leader, Yahya Sinwar, as an opportunity to finally end the war in Gaza. Israeli soldiers killed him in southern Gaza. Sinwar is believed to be the mastermind behind the seven October attacks, when Hamas gunmen killed around one-thousand-200 people in Israel and took 251 hostages. Harris says justice has been served with the death of the Hamas leader:

# Tennis: Serbia’s Novak Djokovic will play Spain’s Rafael Nadal for the last time in the third-place play-off in the Six Kings Slam exhibition event in Saudi Arabia tomorrow. Djokovic lost to Italian Jannik Sinner, 6-2, 6-7, 6-4, while Nadal, who will retire after the Davis Cup in Malaga next month, lost, 6-3, 6-3, to compatriot Carlos Alcaraz. Djokovic and Nadal have met 60 times on the ATP Tour, including Grand Slams, with the Serb leading the head-to-head 31-29 and has 24 Grand Slams to Nadal’s 22.

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 17-rand-62-cents and the euro at 19-rand-11-cents. One British pound costs 22-rand-96-cents and Bitcoin trades at 67-thousand-873-dollars-91-cents. Gold sells at two-thousand-708-dollars-11-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 74-dollars-57-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….