News 14:00

BULLETIN 29 July 2 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# Tiffany Meek is denied bail in her son’s murder case
# A former KwaZulu-Natal municipal manager appears in court for murder
# And Wits says climate change significantly worsened the deadly 2022 Durban floods

# The Roodepoort Magistrate’s Court in Gauteng has denied bail to Tiffany Meek, accused of the murder of her eleven-year-old son, Jayden-Lee. Magistrate Anneline Africa cited strong circumstantial evidence, dishonest conduct, and flight risk concerns. The court noted Meek reported Jayden-Lee missing while knowing he was in their flat and later moved his body. The judge ruled her release would undermine public peace and justice:

# The former uMzimkhulu municipal manager in KwaZulu-Natal, Zweliphansi Skhosana appeared in the local Magistrate’s Court today for his alleged role in the 2017 murder of former ANC Youth League secretary-general Sindiso Magaqa. Magaqa was reportedly targeted for exposing corruption in a municipal tender. A hitman has been convicted, and two other accused will appear in court in October. The National Prosecuting Authority’s Natasha Ramkisson-Kara says the case against Skhosana was postponed to Friday:

Meanwhile, Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs minister Velenkosini Hlabisa has called for a dedicated police unit to tackle municipal corruption and political killings. Speaking to Newzroom Afrika, Hlabisa welcomed Skhosana’s arrest. Hlabisa says corruption continues to harm service delivery:

# Swimming: Twelve-year-old Chinese schoolgirl Yu Zidi was labelled phenomenally talented by her rivals after narrowly missing out on a medal at the aquatics world championships. She finished fourth in the women’s 200-meter medley in Singapore in her first world championships final. Yu missed out on the bronze medal by 0.06-seconds. She was fastest off the blocks and in third place before fading towards the end of the race. Yu will also compete in the 400-meter medley and 200-meter butterfly.

# The financial indicators: The dollar trades at 17-rand-94-cents and the euro at 20-rand-77-cents. One British pound costs 23-rand-96-cents and Bitcoin trades at 118-thousand-702-dollars. Gold sells at three-thousand-324-dollars-62-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 69-dollars-65-cents a barrel.

# And finally: The catastrophic floods of April 2022 in Durban, which claimed 544 lives, were made significantly worse by climate change, according to a study led by the University of Witwatersrand. A kilometre-scale climate attribution model was used, which simulated the storm in both today’s warmed climate and a counterfactual world without human-induced global warming. Three key drivers behind the intensified rainfall have been identified. These are a warmer atmosphere, fuelled by greenhouse gases, the Agulhas Current has warmed in recent decades, and changes in wind patterns are funnelling more moist air into KwaZulu-Natal.

Stay tuned for more news………….