News 16:00
BULLETIN 28 November 4 pm
Good afternoon. I am……..
In this bulletin:
# National Union of Mineworkers calls for more shaft inspections to avoid accidents after the Implats disaster
# The private sector must save South Africa’s supply chain
# And Rugby: Five World Cup winners will compete for SA’s player of the year
# The National Union of Mineworkers’ Health and Safety secretary, Masibulele Naki, has underscored the urgent need for mines to clarify and prioritise shaft inspection procedures to prevent accidents. This follows this morning’s incident at Impala Platinum in Rustenburg, North West, in which 11 mineworkers were killed and 75 seriously injured. Reports indicate that a lift fell down a one-kilometer shaft for about 200-meters as miners were being brought to the surface after their shift. Naki emphasises the crucial importance of making shaft inspections a top priority:
# The Road Freight Association says the private sector must take control of failing state-owned entities to save South Africa’s supply chain. It says the deterioration of ports and rail has been a slow, continued process over at least 10 years, and the management of Transnet and its subsidiaries have been fully aware of the challenges. CEO Gavin Kelly says nothing was done to counter this and the executives, management and ministers who have led Public Enterprises are the ones to blame.
# The Department of Forestry, Fisheries and Environment has allocated the South African National Parks an additional 700-million-rand for infrastructure investment over the next three years. This funding is intended to improve the visitor experience at various national parks under SANParks’ management. SANParks spokesperson, Rey Thakhuli, says they generate approximately 80-percent of the operating budget from its ecotourism business:
# Rugby: Five World Cup winners will compete for the honour of being named SA Rugby’s player of the year for 2023. They are Pieter-Steph du Toit, Eben Etzebeth, Siya Kolisi, Frans Malherbe and Damian Willemse. The Springboks were nominated as team of the year, and head coach Jacques Nienaber as coach of the year. Bok back players Canan Moodie and Jaden Hendrikse will come up against Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, Evan Roos, and Ruan Venter as young player of the year. The winners will be announced early next year.
# Financial indicators: The dollar trades at 18-rand-66-cents and the euro at 20-rand-44-cents. One British pound costs 23-rand-55-cents and Bitcoin trades at 37-thousand-244-dollars-71-cents. Gold sells at two-thousand-and-15-dollars-32-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 80-dollars-65-cents a barrel.
# And finally: The University of the Witwatersrand says researchers have pioneered a new way of searching for Dark Matter. The existence of Dark Matter has been a question that high energy and astrophysicists around the world has been investigating for decades. The university’s professor Deepak Kar says what they were wondering, was whether Dark Matter particles actually are produced inside a jet of standard model particles. He says this led to the exploration of a new detector signature known as semi-visible jets, which scientists never looked at before.
Stay tuned for more news………….