News 16:00

BULLETIN 20 October 4 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# Cellphone records link a murder-accused police detective to the tenderpreneur Katiso “KT” Molefe
# Motorsport: The long-term future of the F1 US Grand Prix is secured
# And government wishes the matric class of 2025 success as the exams begin tomorrow

# Cellphone records presented at the Madlanga commission have linked murder-accused police detective Michael Pule Tau to tenderpreneur Katiso “KT” Molefe, who is believed to have ordered the hit on engineer Armand Swart. Witness A told the inquiry that Tau and Molefe exchanged several calls and messages in the days leading up to Swart’s killing in Gauteng in April last year. Witness A added Molefe allegedly sent Tau the details of a Q Tech employee:

# The DA has accused the Gauteng Health Department of wasting nearly 20-million-rand on constructing a wall at the new Boitumelo Clinic, while the existing facility remains in ruins. The DA’s Emfuleni North constituency head, Kingsol Chabalala, says the project, which began 15-years ago, shows no visible clinic infrastructure. He is demanding an independent audit and full investigation into the spending and accountability from premier Panyaza Lesufi’s administration:

Moving abroad:

# A global outage hit Amazon’s cloud services for several hours today. A subsidiary of the US tech giant said it disrupted many websites and services including Amazon Prime, Perplexity, Fortnite, Alexa, Snapchat and Duolingo. Amazon’s maintenance said it took some three hours to largely fix the problem, with some services working to erase the backlog. During the outage, many other online services were affected, including Reddit, and various video streaming platforms such as Hulu and DisneyPlus. In Europe, several major mobile phone operators, some UK banks, WhatsApp and Tinder were also affected.

# Motorsport: The United States Grand Prix at the Circuit of the Americas in Texas, won by Red Bull’s Max Verstappen yesterday, will remain on the Formula 1 calendar until at least 2034. Since its debut in 2012, the race has drawn massive crowds, including over 430-thousand spectators last year. F1 president and CEO Stefano Domenicali says the event stands out as a true highlight for fans, drivers, and teams alike. The course’s chairperson, Bobby Epstein, says it has grown to one of the world’s biggest single-weekend sporting events.

# The financial indicators: The dollar trades at 17-rand-31-cents and the euro at 20-rand-18-cents. One British pound costs 23-rand-22-cents and Bitcoin trades at 111-thousand-65-dollars. Gold sells at four-thousand-295-dollars-91-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 60-dollars-75-cents a barrel.

# And finally: The Government Communication and Information System has extended its best wishes to the Matric Class of 2025 as they begin their national senior certificate examinations tomorrow. Learners are encouraged to approach the exams with focus, confidence, and determination, while parents and guardians are urged to provide a calm, supportive environment at home. Government deputy spokesperson William Baloyi recommends healthy routines, including rest, nutritious meals, and study breaks to help learners perform at their best:

Stay tuned for more news………….