News 15:00

BULLETIN 19 January 3 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# President Cyril Ramaphosa pledges stronger law enforcement amid the recent violence in Cape Town
# The SAHRC links the North West school transport failures to governance lapses
# And motorsport: Hamilton will have a new race engineer after Ferrari moves Adami

# President Cyril Ramaphosa has expressed deep sorrow over recent tragedies in South Africa, including 26 deaths in Cape Flats violence in Cape Town over the weekend. He extended condolences to affected families and pledged government action to protect citizens. Presidential spokesperson Vincent Magwenya adds government is increasing police presence, and encourages community collaboration:

# The South African Human Rights Commission has found serious governance and accountability failures in the North West school transport programme. Commissioner Nomahlubi Khwinana says systemic shortcomings within the Departments of Community Safety and Transport, and Education remain a challenge. She also cites the provincial Treasury’s weak financial oversight, including payments exceeding one-billion-rand for services not rendered, poor contract management and policy gaps:

# North-West University is facing an admission crunch as thousands of qualified first-year applicants are left out. According to the university, only eleven-thousand-800 spaces for first-year students are available from more than 420-thousand applications received across its eight faculties and three campuses. The university warns many applicants, even those meeting admission point score requirements, cannot be accommodated. Conditional admission offers will be communicated soon, and no walk-in applications will be accepted. The university urges applicants to beware of anyone promising placement in exchange for payment.

# Sakeliga says the Ekurhuleni Municipality in Gauteng is accused of evading compensation for Driefontein farm, expropriated in 2019 and valued at over 30-million-rand. Spokesperson Piet Le Roux says the ANC-controlled city initially sought to expropriate the farm without compensation and, after failed mediation, now seeks a court review to revoke its 2018 decision, delaying the 2 February hearing. He says the move increases legal costs and undermines property rights:

# Motorsport: Seven-time Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton will have a new race engineer this season after Ferrari announced they had moved Riccardo Adami to a different role. Hamilton, who joined Ferrari from Mercedes last season, dismissed reports he and Adami were not getting along after terse radio exchanges between the pair from the opening race in Australia. The awkward exchanges continued right to the end of the campaign last month. Hamilton failed to stand on the podium all season in a career low for the Briton.

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 16-rand-46-cents and the euro at 19-rand-13-cents. One British pound costs 22-rand-6-cents and Bitcoin trades at 93-thousand-59-dollars. Gold sells at four-thousand-663-dollars-50-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 63-dollars-9-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….