News 17:00

BULLETIN 4 November 5 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# A Klawer man is given a life sentence for the murder of a teenager in 2022
# An investigation into Pretoria High School for Girls reveals administrative misconduct and the misuse of resources
# And tennis: Alexander Zverev replaces Daniil Alcaraz as world number two after winning the Paris Masters

# A Western Cape man was given a life sentence for the murder of a teenager in Klawer in February 2022. Fifty-eight-year-old Daniel Smit pleaded guilty to the murder of 13-year-old Jerobejin van Wyk last week. He admitted to kidnapping the boy after catching him stealing mangoes, and later killing him and trying to hide his body parts. The High Court sitting in nearby Vredendal also sentenced Smit to an additional 33-years for attempted murder, kidnapping, violating a corpse and defeating the ends of justice.

# An investigation into Pretoria High School for Girls has uncovered administrative misconduct and misuse of school resources. The Gauteng Education Department, aided by Mdladlamba Attorneys, conducted the probe following complaints about racial discrimination, unfair hiring practices, and the handling of complaints by the principal, Phillipa Erasmus. The law firm’s Mthuthuzeli Mdladlamba told the media an estate facilities manager mismanaged responsibilities and utilised school resources for personal gain: 

# The Israeli military says it had killed a top Hezbollah commander it accused of overseeing rocket and anti-tank missile attacks against Israeli forces in southern Lebanon. The military announced the Hezbollah commander of the Baraachit area in southern Lebanon, Abu Ali Rida, was killed in an air strike, without specifying when he was killed. It says Rida was responsible for planning and executing rocket and anti-tank missile attacks on Israeli troops and oversaw the activities of Hezbollah operatives in the area.

# Tennis: The ATP world rankings show several moves this week. Alexander Zverev of Germany has moved to world number two after winning the Paris Masters, surpassing Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz. Daniil Medvedev of Russia overtook Novak Djokovic of Serbia in fourth position. Jannik Sinner of Italy is already assured of ending the season in top position. American Taylor Fritz is still in sixth. Norwegian Casper Ruud and Australian Alex de Minaur moved up, and Russian Andrey Rublev and Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria slumped.

# The financial indicators: The dollar trades at 17-rand-54-cents and the euro at 19-rand-12-cents. One British pound costs 22-rand-75-cents and Bitcoin trades at 69-thousand-69-dollars-20-cents. Gold sells at two-thousand-740-dollars-63-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 75-dollars-99-cents a barrel.

# And finally: The National Department of Health reaffirms that Pre-exposure prophylaxis is a highly effective HIV prevention method. Department spokesperson Musa Manganye told the SABC that PrEP, when taken as prescribed, reduces HIV risk from sexual transmission by 99-percent and by 74-percent for injection drug users. He emphasised the importance of condom use for broader sexual transmission infection protection:

Stay tuned for more news………….