News 17:00

BULLETIN 28 April 5 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# The Public Servants Association boosts surveillance in a 6.8-billion-rand anti-crime drive
# Japan Airlines trials humanoid robots as ground handlers
# And golf: The 156th Open will return to Royal Lytham and St Annes in 2028

# The Public Servants Association calls for stronger measures to protect the physical safety and psychosocial well-being of public servants in South Africa. The PSA’s Claude Naicker warns that excessive workloads, long hours, and poor support systems are occupational hazards contributing to stress, burnout, and absenteeism. He urges employers to prioritise fair practices, supportive leadership, safe workplaces, and urgent action on staffing shortages to improve service delivery:

# ActionSA is demanding an urgent investigation into alleged irregularities in a 285-million-rand Department of Basic Education textbook tender. The party’s Mathew George says the contract was awarded to a Cape Town-based company registered just three days after tender specifications were issued, raising concerns about possible manipulation. The party is calling on the department and the National Treasury to urgently verify the legality and transparency of the award:

# The City of Cape Town has unveiled a 6.8-billion-rand safety plan focusing on high-tech surveillance to fight crime. According to News24, the strategy will expand CCTV coverage and deploy drones across high-risk areas. Officials say the initiative aims to improve real-time monitoring, speed up response times, and strengthen law enforcement capacity. Authorities believe the investment will enhance safety, deter criminal activity, and support broader efforts to make the city more secure and resilient.

# Japan Airlines will start using humanoid robots in ground handling tasks at Tokyo’s Haneda airport from next month in a two-year trial aimed at easing employees’ workload. The Chinese-made robots will be deployed to load and unload cargo containers. The airline hopes they can in future also be used to clean cabins and operate ground support equipment. The carrier says using robots for physically demanding tasks will provide significant benefits to employees, although some duties, including safety management, can only be handled by humans.

# Golf: The 156th British Open will be hosted at the Royal Lytham and St Annes Golf Club in England in 2028. It returns for the first time since 2012, when Ernie Els won a second time. This year’s Open will be hosted at Royal Birkdale, while the tournament will return to St Andrews in Scotland next year. R&A CEO Mark Darbon says significant work has been done at Royal Lytham:

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 16-rand-59-cents against the rand and the euro at 19-rand-41-cents. One British pound costs 22-rand-38-cents and Bitcoin trades at 76-thousand-116-dollars. Gold sells at four-thousand-577-dollars-55-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 104-dollars-52-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….