News 12:00

BULLETIN 9 April 12 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# Prosecutor Billy Downer denies the state’s description of Jacob Zuma’s litigation strategy has racist undertones
# Cosatu hopes for tangible outcomes from the inaugural national police summit
# And tennis: Victories for Stefanos Tsitsipas, Matteo Berrettini, and Jack Draper in Monte-Carlo

# State prosecutor Billy Downer says there is no truth to former president Jacob Zuma’s claim that the state’s description of his Stalingrad litigation strategy has racist undertones. Zuma and French arms company Thales have launched court applications to have the arms-deal corruption case against them dropped, because of unreasonable delays in the trial. In court papers, Downer says he is baffled that detailing Zuma’s failed attacks on his prosecution could be described as carrying racist undertones, adding that no reasonable observer would see any truth to this claim.

# Cosatu says the inaugural national police summit comes at a time when the country is in urgent need of viable interventions to address the high levels of crime. The three-day event is currently taking place in Johannesburg under the theme, Efficiency in Action: Optimising South Africa’s Policing Potential. Cosatu’s spokesperson, Zanele Sabela, says they are hopeful the summit will not be another talk shop of unproductive deliberations, but will yield constructive results:

# The Public Servants Association has expressed disappointment that government has missed its deadline to remove pit latrines at 141 schools. The union says the continued presence of these toilets threaten the safety and dignity of learners and teachers. The association’s Claude Naiker says while 175-million-rand has been set aside for delayed projects, more funding and a clear plan are urgently needed to address the crisis:

# Tennis: Defending champion Stefanos Tsitsipas is through to the third round of the Monte Carlo Masters. The three-time champion from Greece came from a set down to beat Australian Jordan Thompson. Italian Matteo Berrettini knocked out world number two Alexander Zverev of Germany to claim the biggest victory of his career by ranking. Indian Wells champion, Jack Draper of Britain, made an impressive start to his clay season with a 6-1, 6-1 victory over American Marcos Giron.

# The financial indicators: The dollar trades at 19-rand-68-cents and the euro at 21-rand-69-cents. One British pound costs 25-rand-20-cents and Bitcoin trades at 77-thousand-279-dollars. Gold sells at three-thousand-and-49-dollars-30-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 60-dollars-74-cents a barrel.

# And finally: The highly anticipated eighth film in the iconic spy Mission Impossible franchise, Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, will officially premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in France next month. Tom Cruise reprises his role as Ethan Hunt and is joined by Angela Bassett, Hayley Atwell, Ving Rhames, and Simon Pegg. Cruise and director-writer Christopher McQuarrie will be in attendance at the premiere, marking Cruise’s third time at Cannes. The film’s global release is May 23rd.

Stay tuned for more news………….