News 07:00

BULLETIN 17 February 7 am

Good morning. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# Julius Malema says he won’t be bullied by Elon Musk
# The Farmworkers Organisation welcomes the arrest of two police officers in the Western Cape
# And the stabbing that killed a teenager in Austria was an Islamist attack

# EFF leader Julius Malema says he will not be bullied by US president Donald Trump or tech billionaire Elon Musk. This comes after Musk called for Malema to be sanctioned and declared an international criminal, over his controversial 2018 social media post about cutting the throat of whiteness. Giving a keynote address at the St. Paul African Apostolic Church in Soweto on Sunday, Malema said such attacks will not deter him from his political work and commitment to his principles:

Malema has also reiterated his call for the withdrawal of the South African National Defence Force in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Fourteen SANDF soldiers, who were killed by M23 rebels in the eastern DRC in January during their deployment on a peacekeeping mission, were repatriated last week Thursday. Malema said the SANDF is not prepared enough to fight in the DRC:

# The DA in Ekurhuleni says it is concerned that residents will be punished with rolling blackouts due to the ANC-EFF-ASA coalition’s failure to pay the metro’s Eskom account. The power utility issued a public notice warning the City of Ekurhuleni about extended power cuts due to unpaid electricity bills. The DA’s, Brandon Pretorius, says the metro owes Eskom over 2.3-billion-rand, excluding its current account of a further 1.5-billion-rand, which will become due on 7 March:

# The Rural and Farmworkers Development Organisation has welcomed the arrest of two police officers in the Swartland region of the Western Cape. The officers stationed at the Moorreesburg Police Station, stand accused of kidnapping and raping a 27-year-old woman. The organisation’s, Billy Claasen, says this incident is deeply concerning and highlights the ongoing issues of abuse of power within law enforcement:

# The Austrian government says the stabbing that killed a 14-year-old boy and wounded five others on Saturday was an Islamist attack. A 23-year-old Syrian man was arrested soon after the attack. Interior minister Gerhard Karner says an Islamic State group flag had been found in the suspect’s apartment, and had also sworn an oath of allegiance to IS. He added that the suspect had a valid residence permit, no criminal record, and had not previously attracted the attention of authorities.

# Golf: South Africa’s Wilco Nienaber captured his second NTT DATA Pro-Am title after winning by seven strokes at Fancourt in the Western Cape. He joins an exclusive list of only four players to have won this title twice in its 30-year history, including Nick Price, Darren Fichardt, and Oliver Bekker. Nienaber’s compatriot, Jean-Paul Strydom, finished second on 20-under-par with a closing 66. Meanwhile, in the women’s draw, South Africa’s Danielle du Toit won the title in the playoff, her maiden Sunshine Ladies Tour win.

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 18-rand-33-cents and the euro at 19-rand-26-cents. One British pound costs 23-rand-10-cents and Bitcoin trades at 96-thousand-527-dollar-99-cents. Gold sells at two-thousand-895-dollars-9-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 74-dollars-60-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….