News 18:00

BULLETIN 25 July 6 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# The DA demands the immediate public release of Johannesburg’s investigation into councillor Kenny Kunene
# The Hawks raid City Power’s offices over alleged 500-million-rand tender fraud
# And Meta says it will be forced to ban political advertising in the EU

# The DA urges Johannesburg mayor Dada Morero to release the report into allegations against mayoral committee member for Transport and Patriotic Alliance member, Kenny Kunene, by the end of today. The party claims allegations against Kunene include serious claims of corruption and links to the criminal underworld. The DA’s Belinda Kayser-Echeozonjoku says failing to release the report would prove that the mayor has no real authority:

# The Hawks have launched a high-profile raid at City Power’s Johannesburg headquarters, as part of a 500-million-rand corruption investigation. According to News24, the utility’s CEO, Tshifularo Mashava, is the primary target of the probe which focuses on inflated tenders and payments for work not completed. Investigators seized IT equipment and documents. The raid follows ongoing reports of financial mismanagement at City Power, which recorded a three-billion-rand loss in the last financial year and a negative bank balance of over 16-billion-rand.

# The City of Cape Town’s 700 new police members will be ready for deployment this spring, including dedicated neighbourhood policing for every ward. The officials are currently in their final stages of training at the metro’s Observatory College. Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis says officials will be assigned hand-held devices for digital policing coordination and reporting of offences. He adds they will also benefit from the bodycam rollout underway across the metro’s policing services:

Moving abroad:

# Facebook and Instagram owner, Meta says it will be forced to ban political advertising on its platforms in the European Union from October because of rules it calls unworkable. The EU bolstered rules to reign in Big Tech. Meta has hit out against it with the support of the US administration under president Donald Trump. Meta says political, electoral and social issue advertising will no longer be allowed. The EU says its political advertising rules seek to increase transparency in online advertising after Facebook’s Cambridge Analytica scandal, which came to light in 2018.

On to sport:

# Boxing South Africa has placed super middleweight champion Asemahle “The Predator” Wellem on precautionary suspension for repeatedly violating regulations. Boxing SA CEO Tsholofelo Lejaka says Wellem continues to fight in Tanzania without clearance, with another bout scheduled for tomorrow against Nigeria’s Idowa Rasheed. This marks the third incident. With his license suspended, the national title has been declared vacant. A disciplinary hearing is pending.

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 17-rand-76-cents and the euro at 20-rand-84-cents. One British pound costs 23-rand-87-cents and Bitcoin trades at 115-thousand-541-dollars. Gold sells at three-thousand-337-dollars-44-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 68-dollars-7-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….