News 17:00

BULLETIN 14 April 5 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# A new inquest into an anti-apartheid lawyer’s death is postponed to June
# Nal’iBali remains committed to protecting children’s rights following a sexual assault allegation
# And golf: Other members congratulate Rory McIlroy on joining the exclusive major club

# The inquest into the death of anti-apartheid lawyer Griffiths Mxenge in 1981 has been postponed to 17 June. Two separate inquests into the deaths of Mxenge and former ANC leader Chief Albert Luthuli commenced at the High Court in Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal, today. Luthuli died under unclear circumstances in 1967. The National Prosecuting Authority’s Ncedile Dunywa told the court evidence will show collusion between security police, district surgeons, pathologists, and the magistrate during the 1967 inquest:

# National reading campaign, Nal’iBali has condemned sexual assault allegations against one of its reading campaign practitioners of a Grade 3 learner at Braamfischerville Primary School in Gauteng last month . The official has been suspended and arrested. The provincial Education Department has since cut ties with Nal’iBali. The organisation’s child protection official, Sibongiseni Blose, told SABC News it remains committed to protecting children’s rights:

# An all-female crew, including pop star Katy Perry, completed a very short space ride on Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin rocket. There were six women on board: Perry, broadcaster Gayle King, journalist Lauren Sánchez, rocket scientist Aisha Bowe, civil rights activist Amanda Nguyen and film producer Kerianne Flynn. The Blue Origin is an autonomous rocket without a pilot, so the women were all passengers and weren’t in control of the flight. It took off from West Texas, and returned eleven minutes later.

# Golf: American Tiger Woods was one of the first to welcome Northern Irishman Rory McIlroy to the exclusive club of players who had completed the career Grand Slam of major titles. Thirty-five-year-old McIlroy joined the club when he won the Masters yesterday. The four other members are South African Gary Player, and Americans Jack Nicklaus, Ben Hogan and Gene Sarazan. Player wrote on social media McIlroy has set the standard for his era, while Nicklaus expects to see really good play from him going forward.

# The financial indicators: The dollar trades at 18-rand-90-cents and the euro at 21-rand-40-cents. One British pound costs 24-rand-83-cents and Bitcoin trades at 85-thousand-175-dollars. Gold sells at three-thousand-197-dollars-17-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 64-dollars-97-cents a barrel.

# And finally: The Public Servants Association is concerned about a recent University of Stellenbosch study showing that 50-percent of teachers want to leave the profession due to excessive workloads. The PSA is calling on the Basic Education Department to address the administrative burden that detracts from teaching time. The department is urged to hire more administrative staff to reduce teacher stress and improve education quality. The union says recent studies estimated that South Africa needs more than 50-thousand teachers whilst the country has an annual output of only 15-thousand new teachers.

Stay tuned for more news………….