News 18:00

BULLETIN 25 September 6 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# Chief Zwelivelile Mandela says the Gaza flotilla faces violent escalation within 48 hours
# The Police’s legal expert warns months-long inactivity on the political killings task team cases hinders justice
# And tennis: Carlos Alcaraz recovers from an ankle injury to win the opening match of the Japan Open

# Chief Zwelivelile Mandela says the Global Sumud Flotilla faces the threat of violent escalation from Israel within the next 48 hours. Speaking at an emergency media briefing, Mandela warned that credible intelligence suggests attempts may be made to sink boats or harm participants as the flotilla sails to break the blockade on Gaza. He urged governments, international organisations, and civil society to apply pressure to guarantee safe passage:

# South African Police Service legislative expert Marga van Rooyen has told the Madlanga commission that taking political killings task team dockets to Pretoria for months without investigation, amounts to the suppression of inquiries. According to Van Rooyen, such mishandling of cases hinders ongoing investigations and undermines the effectiveness of police operations. She emphasised that the proper handling of dockets falls under the national police commissioner’s authority, not the Police minister:

# Electricity and Energy minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa says illegal connections and electricity theft remain major obstacles to a stable grid. Despite sufficient generation capacity, these issues strain the distribution network, causing overloads and forcing load reduction measures that affect over one-million customers. Ramokgopa says tackling theft and unauthorised connections is critical to ensuring a reliable electricity supply and protecting infrastructure:

# Former president Nicolas Sarkozy is set to become France’s first postwar leader to go to prison after a court jailed him for five years over a scheme for the late Libyan dictator Moamer Kadhafi to fund his victorious 2007 presidential run. The court convicted him on charges of criminal conspiracy, although it acquitted him of corruption. The court ordered that Sarkozy should be placed in custody at a later date, with prosecutors given one month to inform the former head of state when he should go to prison.

# Tennis: World number one Carlos Alcaraz shrugged off an ankle injury to beat Argentina’s Sebastian Baez 6-4, 6-2 in a gritty start to his Japan Open campaign. He crumpled to the ground chasing a shot in the fifth game of the opening set in Tokyo and sat on the court grimacing for several minutes. The Spaniard had his left ankle heavily strapped during a medical timeout before gingerly returning. The match was also delayed for a further half an hour as organisers closed the stadium roof with rain falling.

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 17-rand-40-cents and the euro at 20-rand-34-cents. One British pound costs 23-rand-27-cents and Bitcoin trades at 111-thousand-707-dollars. Gold sells at three-thousand-732-dollars-60-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 67-dollars-77-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….