News 17:00

BULLETIN 30 January 5 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# The Israeli chargé d’affaires is declared persona non grata
# Shamila Batohi addresses the Nkabinde inquiry concerns on her final day in office
# And Tennis: A South African qualifies for the junior men’s doubles final at the Australian Open

# South Africa has declared Israeli chargé d’affaires, Ariel Seidman, persona non grata, following repeated breaches of diplomatic norms. The spokesperson for the Department of International Relations and Corporation, Chrispin Phiri, cited insults against president Cyril Ramaphosa on official Israeli social media and failure to notify the department of visits by senior Israeli officials. Seidman has 72 hours to leave the country. The government stressed that South Africa’s sovereignty and diplomatic protocols must be respected and urged Israel to ensure proper conduct in future engagements.

# Outgoing National Director of Public Prosecutions Shamila Batohi has denied claims that she walked out of the Nkabinde inquiry. Speaking on her final day in office, Batohi stressed that she is not a delinquent and remains fully committed to the inquiry process. She said she could not discuss details publicly but felt a responsibility to address the nation before retiring:

# The corruption case against former Public Enterprises minister Malusi Gigaba and four co-accused has been transferred to the High Court in Johannesburg for trial. Gigaba appeared at Palm Ridge Magistrate’s Court alongside former Transnet executives Brian Molefe, Siyabonga Gama, and Anoj Singh, and engineer Thamsanqa Jiyane. Prosecutors allege Gigaba received undisclosed financial benefits linked to irregular multi-billion-rand locomotive procurement contracts during his tenure. The state has served an amended notice of trial, with proceedings set to continue on 19 February.

# DA Tshwane has welcomed Tshwane Municipality’s decision to apply to the National Treasury to blacklist tenderpreneur Edwin Sodi and his affiliated companies from future government contracts. Sodi stands accused of the 2019 collapse of a 250-million-rand Rooiwal Wastewater Treatment Plant upgrade leading to the contract cancellation. The National Treasury had previously rejected the applications after finding faults in the submissions. DA leader Cilliers Brink insists on action without external pressure:

# Tennis: South African Connor Doig and Bulgarian Dimitar Kisimov are through to the junior men’s doubles final at the Australian Open. They beat Britain’s Mark Ceban and Russian Kirill Filaretov in a super tiebreak in the semis after sharing the first two sets. The CEO of Tennis Australia, Craig Tiley, who hails from South Africa, congratulated Doig after their victory. Doig and Kisimov will face local wildcard pairing Ymerali Ibraimi and Cooper Kose in tomorrow’s final, with Doig describing it as the biggest match of his life.

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 15-rand-93-cents and the euro at 18-rand-98-cents. One British pound costs 21-rand-92-cents and Bitcoin trades at 82-thousand-679-dollars. Gold sells at five-thousand-86-dollars-76-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 69-dollars-13-cents a barrel

Stay tuned for more news………….