News 15:00

BULLETIN 1 June 3 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# The petrol price hike and diesel price cuts take effect this week
# A traffic crackdown in KwaZulu-Natal nets a SANDF soldier among 59 arrests
# And soccer: A raft of rule changes are approved for the World Cup

# The Department of Mineral and Petroleum Resources has announced new fuel prices effective from Wednesday. Petrol prices will increase by 1.43-rand-per-litre, while diesel prices will drop by between 2.62- and 3.25-rand-per-litre. The adjustments follow stable global oil prices and a stronger rand, which initially supported fuel over-recoveries, but National Treasury’s partial reinstatement of fuel levies resulted in petrol price increases. Illuminating paraffin’s price will decrease by 5.96-rand-per-litre, while gas will fall by 17-cents-per-kilogram.

# The Madlanga commission has postponed the testimony of North West businessman Suliman Carrim to 25 June due to health concerns. Carrim was expected to appear before the commission today after a previous postponement in April following an alleged heart attack. His lawyer, Kameel Premhid, submitted a medical certificate to support the request. Carrim faces allegations of tender fraud, money laundering and using political influence to secure state contracts linked to alleged crime figure Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala. Carrim has denied all allegations.

# A South African National Defence Force soldier was arrested for drunk driving during a road traffic inspectorate operation in Ladysmith, KwaZulu-Natal. Spokesperson Ndabezinhle Sibiya says 13-motorists were arrested in a single day, including a taxi driver allegedly carrying passengers with a blood alcohol level 20-times over the legal limit. He says a total of 59 motorists were arrested, bringing overall arrests since August last year to six-thousand-345:

# Soccer: FIFA’s board has approved several rule changes for the World Cup in the US, Mexico and Canada. The rules include five-second countdowns for throw-ins and goal-kicks, red cards for players covering their mouths during confrontations, punishments for teams walking off the pitch in protest, and mandatory one-minute off-field treatment periods. There will also be a mandatory three-minute hydration break in each half. Video assistant referees will also have new powers, including intervening for wrongly-awarded second yellow cards, mistaken identity incidents and incorrectly-awarded corner kicks.

# The financial indicators: The dollar trades at 16-rand-25-cents and the euro at 18-rand-92-cents. One British pound costs 21-rand-88-cents and Bitcoin trades at 72-thousand-590-dollars. Gold sells at four-thousand-510-dollars-94-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 93-dollars-29-cents a barrel.

# And finally: The Public Protector’s office intervened in unblocking payment of old-age grants for two Gauteng pensioners. They approached the office complaining that social security agency SASSA had not paid their grants since October last year. The Protector’s acting spokesperson, Ndili Msoki, says the complainants submitted all the documents that were required by SASSA, and were assured at the time that their grant reviews had been successful:

Stay tuned for more news………….