NEWSFLASH NEWS AGENCY 24 November 6 pm

Good afternoon,

In this bulletin:

# A former minister’s perjury trial is postponed to tomorrow
# The ANC has vowed to act against councillors who voted in favour of an EFF speaker
# And: Nasa investigates the possibility of steering Earth-bound asteroids off course

# The perjury trial of former Social Development minister Bathabile Dlamini will resume in the Regional Court in Johannesburg tomorrow after proceedings were cut short this morning. Dlamini pleaded not guilty, explaining if she lied under oath while testifying before an inquiry into the social grants scandal of 2017 she did so unknowingly. The state then requested a postponement because it didn’t have sufficient opportunity to consult its first witness and to be able to arrange travel arrangements with another.

# The ANC in North West has vowed to take action against councillors who voted in favour of the EFF’s Olebeng Mogorosi. Mogorosi was elected speaker with nine votes against seven to the ANC’s candidate Doctor Batsi in the troubled Mamusa Local Municipality. The ANC’s Hlomani Chauke says three of the party’s councillors confirmed voting for Mogorosi. Chauke says the ruling party will not tolerate such action.

# The British Parliament is reviewing its rules on the presence of children in the House of Commons after an MP brought her young baby to work. Stella Creasy of the Labour Party says she was reprimanded in an email for holding her son while making a speech. She wrote on Twitter Parliament has apparently accepted a rule that mothers in the mother of all parliaments are not to be seen or heard. Speaker Lindsay Hoyle says he has asked the chairperson of the Procedures Committee to consider the matter.

# Cricket: South Africa A declared on a huge total of 509 for seven on the second day of their four-day match against India A in Bloemfontein. Captain Pieter Malan top-scored with 163 that included 19 fours. Tony de Zorzi contributed 117 and Sinethemba Qeshile 82. The hosts started badly after the visitors’ captain, Priyank Panchai, won the toss and decided to field. Sarel Erwee was dismissed in the first over and Raynard van Tonder in the fourth, but then Malan and De Zorzi saved the day with a third-wicket stand of 217 runs.

# Financial indicators: The dollar is trading at 15-rand-91-cents and the euro at 17-rand-84-cents. One British pound costs 21-rand-23-cents and Bitcoin trades at 56-thousand-449-dollars-8-cents. Gold is selling at one thousand-784-dollars-95-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 82-dollars-26-cents a barrel.

# And finally: Nasa has launched a space project to pave the way for technology that would one day be able to steer a dangerous asteroid off course. The American space agency says its Dart mission intends to find out if it was possible to prevent a space rock from colliding with Earth. The BBC reports the spacecraft is on course to crash into an object to ascertain the influence on the asteroid’s direction and speed. The Dart was launched on a Falcon 9 rocket from a space base in California this morning.

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