News 15:00

BULLETIN 18 December 3 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# A new health expert committee to address foodborne illnesses is announced
# Motorsport: Cape Group gears up for a South African Grand Prix bid
# And an Irish regulator fines Facebook 4.8-billion-rand for a data breach

# The ministerial advisory committee on foodborne illnesses has appointed 15 experts to develop long-term strategies to prevent outbreaks and improve food safety. This follows the deaths of several children after eating snacks contaminated with the highly toxic chemical organophosphate Terbufos, prompting government to strengthen health regulations. Briefing the media, Health minister Aaron Motsoaledi says the committee’s work will focus on addressing gaps in the regulatory system and ensuring public health safety:

# Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, Blade Nzimande, says 2025 promises to be another great year for advancing science and technology. The ministry’s spokesperson, Veli Mbele, says the department recently adopted an overarching mantra: placing science, technology, and innovation at the centre of government, education, society, and industry. He says in the new year, they will seek to be more aggressive in using science, technology and innovation to address the country’s most urgent social challenges:

# The City of Cape Town’s Identikidz programme kicked off the festive season with over 14-thousand children tagged at 15 beaches. Eight lost children were reunited with their families, with Muizenberg leading registrations at over two-thousand-200. Mayoral committee member for Community Services and Health, Patricia van der Ross says the city continues to focus on providing safe, fun opportunities for its youth this festive season:

# Motorsport: The Langa Lethu South African Grand Prix Bid Group will submit a proposal to host a future Grand Prix on the Cape West Coast. Motorsport Media reports the group plans a world-class racetrack with iconic backdrops like Table Mountain. This comes ahead of Sports minister Gayton McKenzie’s announcement of a Formula 1 steering committee. Langa Lethu promises job creation, economic growth, and a Grade one F-I-A circuit accessible to over 100-thousand spectators.

# The financial indicators: The dollar trades at 18-rand-4-cents and the euro at 18-rand-95-cents. One British pound costs 22-rand-95-cents and Bitcoin trades at 104-thousand-643-dollars. Gold sells at two-thousand-649-dollars-11-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 73-dollars-30-cents a barrel.

# And finally: An Irish regulator has fined Facebook-owner Meta 4.8-billion-rand for a data protection failure that saw users’ accounts hacked. The Data Protection Commission criticised Meta for a security flaw in its video upload function which hackers were able to exploit to gain full access to other Facebook users’ profiles. Over a two-week period in 2018, unauthorised users were able to hack into around 29-million Facebook accounts globally. The personal data involved included email addresses, phone numbers, locations and places of work.

Stay tuned for more news………….