News 06:00

BULLETIN 5 November 6 am

Good morning. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# President Ramaphosa says much more needs to be done to protect children
# AfriForum today leads the BELA Action Summit against language policies in Pretoria
# And it’s election day in the US as voters will cast their ballots for either Harris or Trump

# President Cyril Ramaphosa says the government has made significant progress in advancing the rights of children in South Africa. The first Saturday of November marked National Children’s Day. In his weekly newsletter, the president says despite the progress made much more needs to be done, as there have been several criminal cases of children recently being trafficked into the sex trade, raped, and murdered. Ramaphosa says such tragedies are a stark reminder that progressive legislation must be matched by social and other forms of support. 

# AfriForum will host a BELA Action Summit in Pretoria today where numerous Afrikaans organisations plan to march against the Act’s language policies. AfriForum’s Alana Bailey criticised the Act as a threat to Afrikaans cultural communities. Bailey says the protest is pushing against an alleged existential threat to Afrikaans schools and cultural preservation:

# The CEO of the Moti Group and chair of the Government Employees’ Pension Fund, Dondo Mogajane, has resigned following bribery allegations tied to the VBS Mutual Bank collapse. Convicted VBS chair Tshifhiwa Matodzi claims Mogajane accepted a one-million-rand bribe in exchange for halting Treasury actions against VBS. Mogajane denies the claims, calling them malicious. He announced plans for a sabbatical to author a book on his public service experience.

# The Pretoria High Court has dismissed former head of Police Crime Intelligence Richard Mdluli’s request to postpone his trial, pending the outcome of his appeal over SAPS’ refusal to cover his legal fees. Mdluli’s attorney also withdrew, citing a lack of funds. NPA’s Henry Mamothame says Judge Mudunwazi Makamu emphasised the long-standing nature of the case:

# Millions of Americans will head to the polls today to vote for either vice president Kamala Harris or former president Donald Trump in a historic presidential election. Over 75 million Americans have already voted early. If Harris wins, she will enter the White House as not just the first female US president, but the first black woman and Asian American president too. Trump could be the first president since the 19th century to win having lost a re-election bid, and the first of a major party with a criminal conviction.

# Rugby: The Springboks have changed their preparations this week since the weekend’s Test against Scotland at Murrayfield only takes place on Sunday. They arrived in Edinburgh on Sunday after a week-long training camp in Jersey and had the day off yesterday before resuming training today. Tighthead prop Wilco Louw says the camp gave them the opportunity to align as a squad and they’re excited about the week culminating in the Murrayfield clash.  Head coach Rassie Erasmus is expected to name his matchday-23 tomorrow or on Thursday.

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 17-rand-49-cents and the euro at 19-rand-2-cents. One British pound costs 22-rand-67-cents and Bitcoin trades at 67-thousand-789-dollar-10-cents. Gold sells at two-thousand-736-dollars-87-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 75-dollars-17-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….