News 14:00

BULLETIN 24 March 2 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# The PSA demands an urgent probe of 630-million-rand’s missing grants at ETDP SETA
# The Eastern Cape government is working to minimise disruption to service delivery after the Botha Sigcawu building fire
# And cricket: The Proteas clinch a 3-2 series win with a 33-run victory in Christchurch

# The Public Servants Association is calling on Minister of Higher Education and Training, Buti Manamela, to urgently order an independent forensic investigation into the missing 630-million-rand in skills-development grants. The Auditor General found that the grants expenditure by the Education, Training and Development Practices Sector Education and Training Authority cannot be substantiated due to completely missing records. PSA’s Claude Naicker says this is a catastrophic failure of governance:

# The Eastern Cape Public Works, Infrastructure and Human Settlements MEC, Siphokazi Lusithi, has expressed concern following a fire that gutted the historic Botha Sigcawu Building in Mthatha last night. The 11-storey building houses several district and provincial government departments. The department’s spokesperson, Siyabonga Mdodi, says they will urgently engage the affected departments to minimise any disruption to service delivery:

# A wildfire that started on Grotto Road in Hout Bay, Cape Town, yesterday afternoon, is spreading towards Klein Constantia. Firefighters are working to contain the blaze, which remains high on the slopes. Rescue services spokesperson Mark Bosch says helicopters have started aerial water-bombing operations, as authorities monitor conditions and protect nearby properties:

# Cricket: South Africa clinched a historic series victory in Christchurch, defeating New Zealand by 33 runs in the fifth and final T20 Test. The Proteas batted first and posted a formidable 187 for 4, fuelled by a sensational 75 off 33 balls from Connor Esterhuizen. New Zealand’s chase faltered and they finished on 154 for eight. The South African spinners, Keshav Maharaj and Prenelan Subrayen, again proved decisive and stifled the middle order. The 3-2 serious win is South Africa’s first-ever bilateral T20 series triumph on New Zealand soil.

# The financial indicators: The dollar trades at 16-rand-87-cents and the euro at 19-rand-58-cents. One British pound costs 22-rand-62-cents and Bitcoin trades at 71-thousand-508-dollars. Gold sells at four-thousand-557-dollars-67-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 94-dollars-92-cents a barrel.

# And finally: About 32 bodies, mostly children, have been dug up from a mass grave in the western Kenyan town of Kericho. Government pathologist Richard Njoroge said there were seven adults and 25 children. Kenya’s Directorate of Criminal Investigations said it is not clear how the bodies came to be buried at the site, belonging to the National Council of Churches of Kenya.  This comes after hundreds of bodies were found in a forest in 2023 near the coastal city of Malindi in one of the country’s worst cases of cult-related mass deaths.

Stay tuned for more news………….