News 17:00

BULLETIN 14 July 5 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# AfriForum slams president Cyril Ramaphosa’s inquiry as a vote of no confidence in law enforcement
# A new outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease is confirmed on a Free State farm
# And rugby: A strong Junior Bok team takes on Argentina in the semifinal of the Under 20 championship

# AfriForum says president Cyril Ramaphosa’s new commission of inquiry into political interference and corruption within the Police Service signals a lack of faith in existing law enforcement agencies. Spokesperson, Jacques Broodryk, says the move shows agencies lack capacity or impartiality. Broodryk warns that commissions are political tactics with no legal power. He insists criminal investigations, not political processes, are needed to address corruption and restore public trust:

# The KwaZulu-Natal Human Settlements Department has confirmed the 33-million-rand purchase of Montclair Lodge from Transnet to house flood victims. MEC for Transport and Human Settlements, Siboniso Duma, says the 268-room facility with 600-bed capacity will be refurbished at a cost of 35-million-rand, with occupancy expected by December or January. He confirmed an engineer will assess the property by end-July while the Housing Development Agency will manage the facility:

# The Department of Agriculture has confirmed a new outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease on a commercial farm in the Free State, bringing the total number of outbreaks across five provinces to 270. According to News24, the affected farm near Kroonstad has been placed under quarantine as officials trace the source of the infection. The outbreak follows a similar case at Karan Beef’s Heidelberg feedlot in Gauteng last month. Government is importing vaccines from Botswana and upgrading vaccine production at Onderstepoort amid rising beef prices linked to the outbreak.

# Rugby: Junior Springbok coach Kevin Foote named a strong team to take on Argentina in tonight’s semifinal of the World Rugby Under-20 championship in Italy. The Baby Boks have been unstoppable in their group matches, easily beating Australia, England and Scotland to advance to the knock-out stage. Foote has opted for six forwards and two back players on the bench to launch an attack on Los Pumitas’ strong pack. New Zealand and France will play in the other semifinal.

# The financial indicators: The dollar trades at 17-rand-90-cents and the euro at 20-rand-91-cents. One British pound costs 24-rand-12-cents and Bitcoin trades at 121-thousand-632-dollars. Gold sells at three-thousand-354-dollars-19-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 66-dollars-98-cents a barrel.

# And finally: The much-anticipated Superman, the newly rebooted comic book adventure starring David Corenswet, debuted at number one at the North American box office. The movie was directed by James Gunn, best known for Guardians of the Galaxy and The Suicide Squad. Universal’s Jurassic World Rebirth dropped to second, with third place going to Apple’s F1: The Movie starring Brad Pitt. Universal and DreamWorks Animation’s live-action blockbuster, How to Train Your Dragon, came in fourth, with Disney and Pixar’s Elio landing in fifth place.

Stay tuned for more news………….