News 07:00

BULLETIN 30 May 7 am

Good morning. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# Early results show the MK Party is doing well in KwaZulu-Natal
# John Steenhuisen says he is concerned by the issues that failed the electorate
# And the jurors in Trump’s criminal trial have begun deliberations

# The first result from Southern KwaZulu-Natal is in. This is the ANC’s strongest part of the province. In Umzimkhulu the ANC obtained 50-percent of the votes followed by MK with 39-percent, while in eDumbe the IFP got 60-percent of the votes followed by MK and then the Abantu Batho Congress. In Msunduzi, MK won 49-percent followed by the ANC with 21-percent, and the DA in third place with 15-percent. Political analyst Daniel Silke predicted that the MK Party would make a dent in the ANC’s support:

# DA leader John Steenhuisen says he is deeply concerned about the frustrations caused by issues relating to voter management devices, ballot paper shortages, long queues, and other issues with the Electoral Commission systems. Despite major issues on election day yesterday, vote counting is continuing at voting stations across the country. Steenhuisen says he is however heartened by the millions of South Africans who turned out to exercise their right to vote.

# Minister of Justice and Correctional Services Ronald Lamola says the voting of inmates shows the progressiveness of South Africa’s democracy. More than 17-thousand sentenced inmates were registered to vote. Lamola says in Gauteng, there were four-thousand-879 inmates eligible to vote, of which more than half were from the Kgosi Mampuru Correctional Centre:

# The South African Democratic Teachers’ Union has sent its condolences to the families of ten educators who died in a head-on collision on the R521 Dendron Road near Polokwane in Limpopo on Tuesday. The union’s general-secretary, Mugwena Maluleke, says the victims, eight females and two males, were union members. Maluleke highlights the impact of their loss during mid-year exams, calling for psychosocial support for learners and colleagues. He has also called for thorough investigations into the incident.

# The 12-person jury in Donald Trump’s criminal hush money trial has begun deliberating on a verdict. The former US president is facing 34 charges of falsifying business records concerning paying off former adult film star Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election. A New York court heard from 22 witnesses over six weeks, including Daniels and Trump’s then-attorney, Michael Cohen. The jury’s seven men and five women must be unanimous in their decision. Trump has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

# Boxing: Oleksandr Usyk will face Tyson Fury in a rematch on 21 December in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, after winning their undisputed heavyweight boxing bout earlier this month. The undefeated Ukrainian won by split decision against Britain’s Fury in the first unification fight of the four-belt era. Thirty-seven-year-old Usyk, who briefly served as a soldier after the Russian invasion, was also undisputed champion at cruiserweight and won Olympic, world and European honours as an amateur.

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 18-rand-45-cents and the euro at 19-rand-93-cents. One British pound costs 23-rand-43-cents and Bitcoin trades at 67-thousand-908-dollars-21-cents. Gold sells at two-thousand-334-dollars-10-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 83-dollars-47-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….