News 16:00

BULLETIN 16 April 4 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# Julius Malema released on a warning pending the appeal process against his five year jail sentence
# Minister Kubayi reports a high firearm case enrolment but low convictions
# And rugby: Scarra starts and ends his senior career in Cape Town

# EFF leader Julius Malema has been released on warning by the East London Magistrate’s Court in KuGompo City in the Eastern Cape, pending appeal proceedings to be filed within 21-days. This follows his five-year sentence delivered today. Malema’s lawyer, Laurence Hodes, confirmed his client has complied with all court conditions since being on bail since 2019. Magistrate Twanet Olivier said Malema’s status remain unchanged until the appeal process is finalised:

# Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development Mmamoloko Kubayi reports that South African courts enrolled over 10-thousand cases of illegal firearm possession in the past two years. She told Parliament that 10-thousand-315 cases were recorded, but more than half were withdrawn, with 101 acquittals and one-thousand-671 convictions. Responding to questions from the DA’s Glynnis Breytenbach on firearm prosecutions and case outcomes, Kubayi says the National Prosecuting Authority does not record dockets by crime, limiting the availability of full SAPS referral data.

# The Freedom Front Plus says it is high time for a comprehensive skills audit of the Johannesburg metro administration, following alarming evidence of declining capacity and poor performance. According to the latest quarterly performance report from City Manager Floyd Brink, seven of 22 managers failed to meet their performance targets. FF Plus’ Franco de Lange says these figures are merely a symptom of a systemic shortage of critical skills at the middle-management and technical level:

# At least 15 people were killed and over 90 wounded in a series of Russian drone and missile attacks across Ukraine last night. Among the victims are two children, aged five and a 12-year-old boy. The strikes follow a short ceasefire that took place over Orthodox Easter celebrations at the weekend. Kyiv’s Air Force says it neutralised 31 Russian missiles and 636 drones. Foreign minister Andrii Sybiha says such attacks cannot be normalised as these are war crimes that must be stopped and their perpetrators held to account.

# Rugby: Stormers hooker Scarra Ntubeni will end his professional career at the same club where it started 15-years ago. The 35-year-old is expected to play his swansong in Saturday’s United Rugby Championship encounter with Ireland’s Connacht in Cape Town. Ntubeni is still contracted for the remainder of the season, but says he and coach John Dobson agreed it was time for him to taper down. He started his senior career with Western Province and the Stormers in 2011, and played one Test for the Springboks in 2019.

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 16-rand-39-cents and the euro at 19-rand-30-cents. One British pound costs 22-rand-19-cents and Bitcoin trades at 74-thousand-771-dollars. Gold sells at four-thousand-817-dollars-90-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 92-dollars-60-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….