News 13:00

BULLETIN 3 August 1 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# The SACP calls for a monetary policy change
# Gauteng Health asks for support with their mass measles vaccination campaign
# And Ukraine’s drone attack sparks a fire at a Sochi oil depot

# The South African Communist Party is calling for the urgent repositioning of the South African Reserve Bank to play a developmental role in the state. The SACP’s spokesperson, Mbulelo Mandlana says this must include employment as part of its mandate, explicitly, and holding it accountable for the failure to achieve the constitutional mandate to ensure balanced and sustainable growth. He says the Reserve Bank declared it will adopt a more conservative stance within the narrow policy of inflation targeting regime:

# The Gauteng Health Department is calling on retired and active nurses, staff nurses, data capturers, and community members to volunteer for the province-wide Measles-Rubella Mass Vaccination Campaign. The department’s spokesperson, Motalatale Modiba, says the campaign will run from Tuesday until 12 September, and target over 4-million children in schools, crèches, and communities across all five health districts in the province. He says over 370 confirmed cases were recorded since January this year:

# The MK Party Women’s League has condemned the brutal assault of a 16-year-old, Thapelo Motha, a learner at Thuto Lesedi Secondary School in Vosloorus. The League’s Lindi Mtshali says according to his mother, Nomthandazo Ndaba, Thapelo was attacked on the 23 of July by a group of boys who allegedly targeted him simply for his schoolbag. She says this senseless act of violence has left him with a fractured nose and a serious eye injury:

# A massive oil depot fire raging near Russia’s Black Sea resort of Sochi has been blamed by Russian authorities on a Ukrainian drone attack. Sochi’s nearby airport has suspended flights. Russia’s defence ministry said its air defences intercepted 93 Ukrainian drones overnight, 60 of which were over the Black Sea region. Ukraine’s air force said Russia fired 76 drones and seven missiles overnight, 61 of which were shot down. It comes after a particularly deadly week for civilians in Ukraine, including an attack on Kyiv on Thursday that killed at least 3 people.

# And finally, sports news:

# Tennis: The Canadian teenager Victoria Mboko took down top-seeded American Coco Gauff 6-1, 6-4 on Saturday, thrilling the home crowd as she reached the quarterfinals of the WTA 1000 tournament in Montreal. The 18-year-old wild card saved all four break points she faced, and broke reigning French Open champion Gauff three times on the way to a comprehensive victory in just 62 minutes. Mboko started the season ranked 333rd in the world and has worked her way up to 85, but the win over Gauff is the biggest win of her career.

# Rugby: British and Irish Lions coach Andy Farrell says their gruelling Australian tour was “an absolute delight” despite failing to secure a whitewash. The Lions arrived in Perth six weeks ago as red-hot favourites against a Wallabies team that had slumped to eighth in the world. The Wallabies, still rebuilding after a horror 2023 World Cup, narrowly lost the second test 29-26 in Melbourne, before stunning the Lions 22-12 in Sydney on Saturday. The Wallabies now have a fortnight before kicking off their Rugby Championship campaign with back-to-back tests against world champions South Africa.

Stay tuned for more news………….