News 07:00

BULLETIN 9 December 7 am

Good morning. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# More than 1,400 South African children have starved to death since 2023
# A second matric exam marker has died
# And Trump calls for an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine

# The DA says one-thousand-457 children died of acute malnutrition in the past two years in South Africa, the majority of which were due to severe acute malnutrition. The DA’s Michele Clarke says KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo, the Eastern Cape, and Gauteng were the hardest hit with 265, 230, 190, and 172 deaths respectively from 1 January 2023 to 8 November this year:

# Deputy president Paul Mashatile is urging all South Africans to join forces to bolster campaigns and networks aimed at combating violence against children. He says the government remains committed to supporting all initiatives put forward by men’s organisations to mitigate the impact of gender-based violence and femicide. Mashatile says the nation bears witness to the unacceptable violence against children and must unite to protect the future generations of both boy and girl children:

# A matric exam marker died after suffering an epileptic attack at a marking centre in Kimberley, Northern Cape yesterday. This comes after a 50-year-old woman, who was an isiXhosa matric exam marker at the Alberton marking centre in Gauteng, died last Tuesday. She died after falling and hitting her head against a pole while leaving the centre. The Northern Cape Education Department says Blessing Mthethwa’s contribution to the education system will be sorely missed.

# Nursing organisation Denosa in Johannesburg has expressed concern at the state of the Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital. It says an ongoing shortage of linen as a result of breakage of all machines in the laundry, has resulted in uncollected and soiled linen piling up in various units and corridors of the hospital. Denosa’s, Yandisa Zungula, says the facility is now reliant on the assistance of outside service providers and good Samaritans for the washing of its linen:

# US president-elect Donald Trump has called for an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine, and for negotiations to begin. He met with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Paris over the weekend, saying Kyiv would like to make a deal to end its war with Russia. Zelenskyy has revealed that some 43-thousand Ukrainian soldiers have been killed since Russia’s full-scale invasion began. He adds that the meeting with Trump was productive, saying peace through strength is possible.

# Cricket: England Women defeated South Africa by six wickets in the second ODI in Durban, to level the three-match series. The hosts were bowled out for 135 as they suffered a middle-order collapse, losing five wickets for four runs. Charlie Dean became only the seventh English player in history and third woman to take a hat-trick in ODIs. In reply, England reached the target in 24 overs. Proteas captain, Laura Wolvaardt, says they just did not have enough runs on the board:

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 18-rand-3-cents and the euro at 19-rand-7-cents. One British pound costs 22-rand-99-cents and Bitcoin trades at 99-thousand-717-dollar-1-cents. Gold sells at two-thousand-633-dollars-30-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 71-dollars a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….