News 06:00

BULLETIN 19 March 6 am

Good morning. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# Correctional Services will probe an incident involving Nandipha Magudumana
# A top European Union diplomat claims Israel is using starvation as a weapon of war
# And rugby: The Springbok Women arrived in Spain ahead of their first Test of the year

# The Department of Correctional Services says it’s currently addressing allegations involving detained Nandipha Magudumana, who reported an assault by another inmate. The incident reportedly occurred on Saturday during a prayer meeting in a separate cell at Bizzah Makhate Correctional Centre in Kroonstad in the Free State. The department’s spokesperson Singabakho Nxumalo says healthcare officials found no visible injuries upon examination. According to Nxumalo, the department remains committed to inmate safety and assures that the matter is under thorough investigation:

# Parliament’s portfolio committee on Justice and Correctional Services will receive a legal opinion this week, on whether former Public Protector, Busisiwe Mkhwebane, should recuse herself from selecting a new Deputy Public Protector. The committee interviewed seven candidates. One of the candidates is representing Mkhwebane in a pro bono legal matter, while she disciplined another as an employee of the Public Protector’s office. Parliament’s legal team was asked to weigh in on the matter.

# Water and Sanitation deputy minister David Mahlobo says Rand Water and the Umngeni-Uthukela water board have been deployed to assist struggling municipalities in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal respectively. Gauteng residents are still without water in some areas and residents in Durban have also been facing serious water outages for weeks. Briefing the media at the ANC’s Luthuli House headquarters in Johannesburg yesterday, Mahlobo, says the anger expressed by communities facing water shortages is justified:

# The Department of Education in the Western Cape encourages parents to apply for grade one and eight admissions for next year’s school year before the deadline on 12 April. Since the application window opened on 11 March, the department has already received 45-thousand-950 admissions. MEC for Education David Maynier reminded parents to utilise the over 120 pop-up sites for in-person assistance with their applications:

# The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, has accused Israel of using starvation as a weapon of war and provoking famine in Gaza. Borrell said Gaza was no longer on the brink of famine but in a state of famine affecting thousands of people. He said this was directly caused by Israel preventing humanitarian support from entering Gaza. He spoke at the opening ceremony of the European Humanitarian Forum in Brussels. Borrell claimed hundreds of trucks were waiting at the border but was prevented by Israel from entering Gaza.

# Rugby: The Springbok Women arrived in Spain ahead of their first test match of the year. They will be empowered by good learnings from their training sessions with Scotland and Wales. The Boks will play a test against Spain in Valladolid on Saturday and a week later they will take on the USA at Twickenham in London. These games will be another important step in the team’s preparations to qualify for the World Cup in England next year.

# And, the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 18-rand-97-cents and the euro at 20-rand-62-cents. One British pound costs 24-rand-13-cents and Bitcoin trades at 66-thousand-60-dollar-14-cents. Gold sells at two-thousand-158-dollars-90-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 86-dollars-76-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….