News 12:00

BULLETIN 7 November 12 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# Former minister Malusi Gigaba hands himself over to police
# The KZN political killings task team seizes devices from suspended Police minister Senzo Mchunu
# And Israel launches heavy air strikes on southern Lebanon

# Former Public Enterprises minister Malusi Gigaba handed himself over to the police in Pretoria in connection with the ongoing investigations into corruption at Transnet. Gigaba served as Public Enterprises minister between 2010 and 2014. It was a period during which the infamous Gupta family and their associates allegedly exerted significant influence over the awarding of major Transnet contracts, including a 54-billion-rand locomotive deal. Gigaba says he has full confidence in the courts for they are the forum where facts, not fiction, prevail. 

Meanwhile, the KwaZulu-Natal political killings task team has seized five electronic devices belonging to suspended Police minister Senzo Mchunu as part of an investigation into alleged political interference and corruption in the justice system. Mchunu’s spokesperson, Sthembiso Mshengu, told Newzroom Afrika the minister is fully cooperating and remains committed to transparency and accountability. He says the nature and content of the investigations is still unclear, and insists Mchunu wants transparency:

# The Cape Winelands District Municipality says firefighters managed to successfully contain all five fires attended to yesterday evening. The fires were reported in Waterval outside Tulbagh, near the landfill site outside Wellington, Paarl Valley, outside Pniël, and in the mountains above Zolani in Ashton. The municipality’s spokesperson, Jo-Anne Otto, says the fire outside Wellington re-ignited late last night, but was managed by Drakenstein Municipality:

Moving abroad:

# The Israeli military carried out heavy airstrikes on southern Lebanon after issuing evacuation orders for several locations, saying Lebanese armed group Hezbollah was trying to rebuild its military capabilities there. The orders and strikes came despite a ceasefire deal agreed a year ago between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah. Fears have been mounting in Lebanon that Israel could resume a full-blown aerial bombing campaign, particularly after Israeli leaders warned they would take action against Hezbollah if Lebanon did not step up efforts to disarm the group.

# Cricket: Proteas Women captain Laura Wolvaardt’s heroics in the World Cup in India propelled her to the top of the one-day batter’s rankings. She scored centuries in the semifinal against England as well as the final against the hostesses, which South Africa lost by 52 runs. Wolvaardt’s 571 runs in the tournament is the most in a single edition. She overtook India’s Smriti Mandhana in the number one position, with Australia’s Ash Gardner in third position. England captain Nat Sciver-Brunt is fourth and Australian Beth Mooney fifth.

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 17-rand-36-cents and the euro at 20-rand-3-cents. One British pound costs 22-rand-76-cents and Bitcoin trades at 101-thousand-537-dollars. Gold sells at four-thousand-and-7-dollars-48-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 63-dollars-86-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….