News 13:00

BULLETIN 20 September 1 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# Helen Zille is officially nominated as DA mayoral candidate for Johannesburg
# Eskom marks 126 days without load-shedding
# And an overnight Russian attack in Ukraine claims three and injures dozens

# DA leader John Steenhuisen has announced DA Federal Council chair, Helen Zille, as Johannesburg mayoral candidate for the 2026 Local Government Elections. Speaking in Soweto, Steenhuisen described Johannesburg as a city of extraordinary people hindered by poor political leadership. Steenhuisen accused politicians of mismanaging the city’s budget and said the DA is the “muti” Johannesburg needs. He urged voters not to split their vote, warning it would extend the city’s decline:

# Eskom has reported a stable power system with 126 consecutive days without load-shedding supported by Eskom’s Generation Recovery Plan. With a month-to-date Energy Availability Factor of 71-percent, this is the highest in years. Unplanned outages dropped to an eight-year low of five-thousand-989-megawatts. Eskom spokesperson Daphne Mokoena says diesel use has also fallen sharply. She says that electricity demand has been met for over 97-percent of the current financial year:

# The minister of Justice, Mmamoloko Kubayi, says masking identities in certain cases could be a possible solution following the assassinations of State prosecutors. Addressing Parliament, Kubayi emphasised that televised court proceedings are unintentionally putting State prosecutors at risk, with their faces shown while accused persons remain hidden. The minister points to past shootings of prosecutors, with five killed in five years, stating that systems are being strengthened to flag high-risk cases. Kubayi said the assassinations are a threat to the criminal justice system.

# The Bronkhorstspruit Magistrate’s Court has granted a local deputy principal five-thousand-rand bail under strict conditions, including twice-weekly reporting to police and no contact with the complainant. He faces three counts of raping an eight-year-old learner on the school premises between June 2024 and August 2025. The National Prosecuting Authority’s Lumka Mahanjana says prosecutors opposed bail, citing flight risk, but the magistrate found exceptional circumstances:

# Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said three people have been killed and dozens injured after one of Russia’s largest attacks of the war overnight. The Ukrainian leader said in a statement that Moscow launched 40 cruise and ballistic missiles and about 580 drones of various types overnight. Zelensky said each such strike is not a military necessity, but a deliberate strategy by Russia to intimidate civilians and destroy Ukrainian infrastructure. He called for a strong international response. It was the largest number of missiles and drones fired by Russia at Ukraine since February 2022.

# And cycling: All riders at this year’s cycling Road World Championships in Rwanda will have GPS trackers fitted to their bikes to improve safety. Tragedy struck last year’s championships in Switzerland when Swiss teenager Muriel Furrer died following a crash in the junior women’s road race near Zurich. The tracking technology was tested during three stages at the Tour de Romandie Feminin in Switzerland. In the event of a crash or sudden change in speed the device would allow for immediate identification of any unusual situations. The event begins this weekend in Kigali, a first for Africa.

Stay tuned for more news………….