News 17:00

BULLETIN 15 January 5 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# The crime Intelligence boss defends unpopular reforms amid resistance
# British American Tobacco is to shut down the only South African plant in a major pullback
# And rugby, it is a crucial final pool round for South African teams in European competitions

# South African Police Service Crime Intelligence boss Dumisani Khumalo told Parliament’s ad hoc committee on political interference that he prioritised key reforms, including strengthening the legal framework in his department, despite resistance. Khumalo said some decisions were unpopular and met with misinformation at senior management levels. He emphasised that legal reforms were urgent and necessary to stabilise the service, even if they were not widely supported:

# British American Tobacco is closing its only manufacturing plant in South Africa in Heidelberg, Gauteng, at the end of the year, a move that will shed over a thousand jobs. The decision will see the group not manufacturing cigarettes locally for the first time in over 70-years, resorting to imports to serve the South African market. B-A-T blames the closure on illegal cigarettes, which it says now account for 75-percent of the market. The plant, the company’s eighth-largest factory, employs at least one-thousand-500 people.

# The Department of Water and Sanitation says the Western Cape has not had any significant rainfall, resulting in water levels going on a downward spiral week-on-week. Overall, provincial dam levels have crashed to 58.0-percent, a 22.7 percentage point decline from the 80.7-percent recorded in January last year. This represents the lowest January level in years. The department’s spokesperson, Wisane Mavasa, says the province is in a precarious water security position:

# A French military contingent has arrived in Greenland’s capital of Nuuk as several European states send soldiers as part of a so-called reconnaissance mission. It comes as US president Donald Trump continues his claim to the Arctic island, which is a semi-autonomous part of Denmark. He has doubled down on his bid to bring Greenland under US control. Europe’s NATO deployment consists of only a few dozen personnel as part of Danish-led joint exercises. While heavy in symbolism, it was not immediately clear how long they would stay.

# Rugby: The Stormers, the Bulls, the Sharks, and the Lions will have their work cut out in the final rounds of the Champions Cup and Challenge Cup competitions, where their playoff fates will be determined this weekend. The Bulls face Pau in the Champions Cup in France tomorrow. On Saturday, the Sharks host Clermont in Durban, and the Stormers welcome Leicester Tigers to Cape Town. The Lions take on Perpigan in the Challenge Cup in France and the Cheetahs, already knocked out, will face Racing 92 in Paris.

And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 16-rand-38-cents and the euro at 19-rand-4-cents. One British pound costs 21-rand-93-cents and Bitcoin trades at 96-thousand-914-dollars. Gold sells at four-thousand-605-dollars-30-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 63-dollars-21-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….