News 18:00

BULLETIN 23 January 6 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# Four are dead and two critical after the East Rand family shootings
# The Kluitjieskraal fire is burning out of control after claiming 40 structures 
# And a slight earth tremor was experienced in Gauteng this morning

# A man from Benoni on the Gauteng East Rand is under police guard in hospital after allegedly shooting his wife, daughter, parents and houseworker before turning the gun on himself. The man’s wife also survived, but the other four people have died. The 56-year-old man allegedly first shot his parents, both in their 70s, in their house in Kempton Park before returning to his home and shooting his 43-year-old wife, 22-year-old daughter and the 56-year-old worker. Both the man and his wife are in critical condition.

# The Kluitjieskraal fire in the Cape Winelands District has claimed approximately 40 structures. The fire, which ignited late yesterday afternoon, has already burned through six-thousand hectares, and continues to rage out of control, driven by high temperatures and strong winds. The municipality’s spokesperson, Anesca Roodt, says active firefighting efforts will persist throughout the night, with a focus on containing the fire line and protecting remaining structures.

# Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa says the energy outlook is set for improvement with the return of Koeberg unit one to the grid, ensuring a substantial boost of at least 27 additional megawatts. Unit one was successfully synchronised in November last year, following an extended outage, which signifies a positive step towards enhancing energy resilience. Briefing the media on the Energy Action Plan, Ramokgopa anticipates a notable reduction in load-shedding intensity, but says, planned maintenance is still significantly high:

# Tennis: World number one Novak Djokovic reached the semifinals of the Australian Open by beating 12th seeded American Taylor Fritz in four sets. The Serb won 7-6, 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 on a hot day in Melbourne to continue his bid for a record-extending 11th title at the Grand Slam tournament. The 36-year-old defending champion says it was a tough game:

# Financial indicators: The dollar trades at 19-rand-1-cent and the euro at 20-rand-65-cents. One British pound costs 24-rand-12-cents and Bitcoin trades at 38-thousand-744-dollars-44-cents. Gold sells at two-thousand-and-23-dollars-28-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 79-dollars-47-cents a barrel.

# And finally: The Council for Geoscience has confirmed that parts of Gauteng experienced a slight earth tremor in the early hours of this morning. The tremor, with a magnitude of approximately 2.5, occurred south of Johannesburg, about three kilometres north of Harmony’s Doornkop gold mine. This marks the first earthquake in the province this year. The council encourages the public to share their experiences using an online questionnaire. This incident follows previous tremors in October and a powerful quake in June last year.

Stay tuned for more news………….