News 07:00

BULLETIN 22 March 7 am

Good morning. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# Deputy president Mashatile says South Africa won’t disregard its own policies because of external pressure
# Counter-terrorism police lead the investigation into Heathrow’s shut-down
# And soccer: Bafana beat Lesotho 2-0 to go top of their Africa qualifying group for the World Cup

# Deputy president Paul Mashatile says South Africa won’t disregard its own policies because of external pressure. He addressed a Human Rights Day event in Kariega in the Eastern Cape. Mashatile vowed that the country would stand firm on policies aimed at addressing historical injustices, and that government believes it had chosen the correct path to establish an equitable society. He also said US president Donald Trump’s freeze on aid to foreign countries shows the urgent need for South Africa to build a resilient, self-reliant healthcare system.

# Cosatu is pleased government is assisting Arcelor Mittal South Africa to keep its long steel plant in Newcastle, KwaZulu-Natal, operational while a plan is sought to make it sustainable. The company announced in January it will shut down its plants in Newcastle and Vereeniging, Gauteng, as it could no longer sustain the business given the extraordinarily high energy and transport costs. Cosatu’s Zanele Sabela says according to the steel producer, three-thousand-500 direct and indirect jobs will be affected:

# The DA in the Western Cape has welcomed the decision by Parliament’s standing committee on Economic Development and Tourism to call Air Traffic and Navigation Services management to appear before it. This is to account for the ongoing failures of the navigation system at George Airport. The DA’s Noko Masipa says they demand answers as the persistent issues are impacting economic activity in the region, while frustrating travellers:

Meanwhile, British counter-terrorism police are leading the investigation into yesterday’s fire at a substation near Heathrow in London that brought one of the world’s busiest airports to a complete standstill. The airport announced early yesterday that it would be closed for the rest of the day due to a significant power outage. Over 145-thousand passengers worldwide could be impacted while up to one-thousand-300 flights are expected to be affected over the coming days, costing the airline industry hundreds of billions of rand. The airport re-opened after 16 hours.

# And soccer: Bafana Bafana improved to the top of Africa’s qualifying Group C for next year’s World Cup in Northern America when they beat Lesotho 2-0 in Polokwane. It took over an hour before Relebohile Mofokeng scored the first goal of the game. Only three minutes later, Jayden Adams found the back of the net and South Africa kept the lead until the end. Bafana now has a two-point lead on second-placed Benin, with the two countries doing battle in Abidjan in the Ivory Coast on Tuesday.

Stay tuned for more news………….