News 18:00

BULLETIN 29 April 6 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# A fifth body was recovered from the Hennops River
# Sluice gates at the Vaal and Bloemhof dams remain open as water levels stabilise
# And, the Proteas women come up short against India despite a century by Tazmin Brits

# Police spokesperson Athlenda Mathe has confirmed a fifth body has been recovered from the Hennops River. This follows the retrieval of three bodies believed to be missing police officers from the Free State who went missing last Wednesday. A fourth body was found today. She says the identities remain unknown, and investigations are ongoing to determine the cause of death and possible links between the victims:

# The Water and Sanitation Department has confirmed that ten sluice gates remain open at the Vaal dam, with water outflows at one-thousand-771-cubic meters per second, while Bloemhof dam maintains outflows at three-thousand-600-cubic meters per second. The Vaal dam is at 119-percent and Bloemhof at 117-percent. The department says that despite inflows decreasing, tributaries continue to feed the system with controlled releases remaining in place. Meanwhile the Vanderkloof and Gariep dams are experiencing uncontrolled overflows, both spilling above 108-percent capacity.

# Vietnam will free more than 8-thousand prisoners, including foreigners, ahead of the 50th anniversary of the fall of Saigon. The communist country often announces special amnesties before important events. It has freed nearly 100-thousand prisoners ahead of their expected release dates since 2009, although political activists have never been included. Those convicted of “attempting to overthrow” the communist government or “terrorism” are not eligible for release. The detainees will be released from Thursday and will include 25 foreigners of nine different nationalities.

# Cricket: India’s women won the opening match in the tri-series against South Africa by 15 runs. They won the toss in Colombo and elected to bat first. The Indians scored 276 for 6 with Pratika Rawal top-scoring with 78 from 91 balls. The Proteas women got off to a great start with Tazmin Britz and Laura Wolfaardt’s scoring a 140-run opening partnership. Britz scored 109 runs off 107 balls but the wickets kept falling around her and South Africa was all out for 261 in the final over.

# The financial indicators: The dollar trades at 18-rand-54-cents and the euro at 21-rand-14-cents. One British pound costs 24-rand-85-cents and Bitcoin trades at 94-thousand-774-dollars. Gold sells at three-thousand-312-dollars-11-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 63-dollars-26-cents a barrel.

# And finally, the City of Cape Town’s Environmental Health Practitioners have recorded a 57-percent increase in noise complaints in the past two years. The top sources of noise complaints in Cape Town are places of late-night entertainment, events with amplified sound and residential business/workshop noise. Mayoral committee member for Community Services and Health, Francine Higham, says in the 2023/2024 financial year, noise complaints increased from one-thousand-216 to one-thousand-905:

Stay tuned for more news………….