News 09:00

BULLETIN 7 April 9 am

Good morning. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# The police’s Easter operations were very successful
# The EFF accuses the SABC and Newzroom Afrika of unbalanced coverage
# And, the Artemis 2 crew eclipses the record for the farthest human spaceflight

# The South African Police Service says nationwide Easter operations yielded positive results, including the arrest of 15-thousand-840 suspects for various criminal offences. Authorities also confiscated 132 illegal firearms and more than one-thousand rounds of ammunition, with KwaZulu-Natal recording the highest number of handgun confiscations. National Police spokesperson, Athlenda Mathe, says during the operations, 532 illegal taverns were shut down for non-compliance with the Liquor Act:

# Anti-apartheid activist Allan Boesak says the church must take a stronger stand against corruption as the Madlanga Commission resumes its hearings. Speaking to Newzroom Afrika, Boesak warned that a conspiracy of silence has allowed wrongdoing to persist, calling for accountability and moral leadership. He praised KwaZulu-Natal Police Commissioner Nhlanhla Mkwanazi for exposing alleged corruption that brought long-hidden issues into the spotlight. He urged faith communities to unite and act decisively:

# The EFF has formally written to the SABC and Newzroom Afrika to request a right to reply. This follows what the party says is biased and unbalanced coverage on the appointment of the EFF’s provincial chairperson, Nkululeko Dunga, as Gauteng MEC for Finance. He was appointed by premier Panyaza Lesufi last week. The EFF says both media houses featured multiple external commentators, including political analysts and reporters, who were given space to reflect on and critique the appointment, but did not extend the same opportunity to the party.

# Tennis: 2014 champion Stan Wawrinka has been knocked out of the Monte-Carlo Masters, going down 7-5, 7-5 to wildcard Sebastian Baez of Argentina in the first round. The 41-year-old Swiss will retire from tennis at the end of the season. Argentina’s Francisco Cerundolo defeated three-time champion Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece, 7-5, 6-4, while Belgium’s Alexander Blockx battled past Canadian Denis Shapovalov, 6-4, 4-6, 6-3. Russia’s Andrey Rublev, who won his maiden Masters 1000 title in Monte-Carlo in 2024, secured a 6-4, 1-6, 6-1 victory over Portuguese Nuno Borges.

# The financial indicators: The dollar trades at 16-rand-90-cents and the euro at 19-rand-49-cents. One British pound costs 22-rand-35-cents, and Bitcoin trades at 68-thousand-668-dollars. Gold sells at four-thousand-648-dollars-97-cents a fine ounce, and Brent crude oil is quoted at 108-dollars-25-cents a barrel.

# And finally, four astronauts aboard NASA’s Artemis 2 test flight around the moon have made history, venturing farther from Earth than anyone ever has, breaking the 1970 record set by Apollo 13. Across a six-hour flyby, the crew of the Orion capsule, Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen, captured views of the moon’s far side that have never been seen before. The astronauts witnessed a total solar eclipse from their spacecraft, a sight Glover said is truly hard to describe:

Stay tuned for more news………….