News 11:00

BULLETIN 6th November 11 am

Good morning. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# Government is called to assist 17 South African men trapped in Ukraine
# The US is initiating a 10-percent reduction in flight capacity at 40 major airports
# And rugby: Eighteen players are invited to a Springbok Women’s Sevens training camp

# Government says it has received distress calls for assistance to return home 17 South African men, between the ages of 20 and 39 years old, who are trapped in the war-torn Ukrainian region of Donbas. They were lured to join mercenary forces involved in the Ukrainian-Russian war under the pretext of lucrative employment contracts. Sixteen of the men come from KwaZulu-Natal and the other one is from the Eastern Cape. President Cyril Ramaphosa’s spokesperson, Vincent Magwenya, says government condemns the exploitation of young, vulnerable people:

# ActionSA has revealed that South Africa’s bloated government of national unity cabinet of 32 ministers and 43 deputy ministers costs taxpayers an estimated 603-million-rand every year. The party’s Athol Trollip says each minister costs about 8.9-million-rand annually, while each deputy minister costs 7.4-million, including salaries and staff. Trollip says ActionSA argues that these figures expose wasteful spending while millions of South Africans struggle daily:

# The Department of Employment and Labour says it has received 68 claims related to the George building collapse through the Compensation Fund. Fifteen of these are from South Africans and 53 are from foreign nationals. Thirty-four construction workers lost their lives when a five-storey partially built structure caved in last May. The department says the families of 28 of the 34 victims have submitted claims. It adds it is struggling to process some of the claims due to the lack of proper documentation.

Moving abroad:

# US Transportation secretary Sean Duffy says the Federal Aviation Administration will reduce flight capacity by 10-percent at 40 major airports across the country. This is due to the government shutdown, which has resulted in air traffic controller staffing shortages. The restrictions come into effect tomorrow. The cancellations could affect between three-thousand-500 and four-thousand flights per day. Duffy says this decision has been made to maintain safety and efficiency:

# Rugby: SA Rugby Women’s Player of the Year, Nadine Roos, is amongst a group of 18 players invited to a Springbok Women’s Sevens training camp in Pretoria. Other notable invitees include Zintle Mpupha, Byrhandrè Dolf, and Ayanda Malinga. The camp is part of preparations for the Africa Women’s Sevens championship in Kenya next weekend. South Africa will face Zambia, Ghana and Egypt in Pool A, where a top-two finish will be needed to continue their quest to the 2026 World Rugby Sevens Challenger Series.

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 17-rand-38-cents and the euro at 20-rand. One British pound costs 22-rand-69-cents and Bitcoin trades at 103-thousand-222-dollars. Gold sells at three-thousand-996-dollars-70-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 63-dollars-75-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….