News 07:00
BULLETIN 22 November 7am
Good morning. I am……..
In this bulletin:
# BRICS leaders are calling for an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Palestine
# Parliament wants Julius Malema and other EFF MPs barred from attending the State of the Nation address in 2024
# And, Oscar Pistorius may be spending his birthday behind bars for the last time
# The Brics group of nations, Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, have called for an immediate, durable, and sustained humanitarian truce leading to a cessation of hostilities between Israel and Palestine. The group’s leaders yesterday held an extraordinary joint meeting virtually on the situation in the Middle East in Gaza. Delivering his remarks at the meeting, president Cyril Ramaphosa said they urge the international community to agree on urgent and concrete actions to end the suffering in Gaza:
# Parliament wants EFF leader Julius Malema, his deputy Floyd Shivambu and four other party members barred from attending next year’s State of the Nation Address and suspended for ten days. Parliament’s Powers and Privileges Committee found them guilty of contravening the Powers, Privileges, and Immunities Act. The EFF members ignored the ruling of the speaker of the National Assembly to leave the Chamber and instead jumped onto the stage where president Cyril Ramaphosa was to deliver Sona this year. The committee will deliberate on the two sanctions and take a decision today.
# Oscar Pistorius is turning 37 today, and chances are this will be his last birthday behind bars. The former Paralympic champion is set to appear before a Parole Board on Friday after serving more than half of his sentence for killing his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, in his home in Pretoria in 2013. He has been in custody since 2016. Pistorius’s previous parole bid in March was a non-event due to doubt about the starting date of his sentence. The Constitutional Court ruled last month he is indeed eligible for parole.
# The Freedom Front Plus says it will fight the Gauteng government’s plan to take over all child foster care cases in four months’ time. The party’s, Anton Alberts, says the provincial government has proven with the Life Esidimeni tragedy that it is utterly unable to care for minors and people with disabilities. He says they will send a petition to the Department of Social Development requesting that the plan be abandoned, and should the request be ignored, they will lodge a complaint with the Human Rights Commission:
# The IFP in KwaZulu-Natal is calling for heads to roll after a botched circumcision of a ten-year-old boy was performed at the KwaMashu Community Health Centre in Durban. The boy is believed to be one of seven children who suffered complications following the procedure. The IFP says the MEC for Health Nomagugu Simelane must break her silence on this matter and hold those responsible accountable. It says there must be mechanisms in place to protect the patients and ensure that doctors have the necessary skills to perform their duties.
# Cricket: The International Cricket Council has banned any transgender athletes from international women’s cricket if they have been through male puberty. This is under new gender eligibility regulations that have been introduced. In September, Canada’s Danielle McGahey became the first transgender cricketer to play an official international game, when she featured in a Women’s T20 fixture against Brazil. The ICC’s chief executive Geoff Allardice says the new policy is for the protection of the integrity of the women’s game, safety, fairness, and inclusion.
# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 18-rand-62-cents and the euro at 20-rand-38-cents. One British pound costs 23-rand-35-cents and Bitcoin trades at 36-thousand-85-dollars-10-cents. Gold sells at one-thousand-995-dollars-85-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 82-dollars-30-cents a barrel.
Stay tuned for more news………….