News 07:00

BULLETIN 3 January 7 am

Good morning. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# Israel is set to appear before the International Court of Justice to counter South Africa’s Gaza case
# National Treasury devises a plan to enhance internal controls
# And cricket, David Bedingham is excited about the possibility of playing at Newlands

# Israel will appear before the International Court of Justice in the Hague on 11 and 12 January, to contest South Africa’s genocide accusations over the war with Hamas in Gaza. South Africa asked the ICJ on Friday for an urgent order declaring that Israel was in breach of its obligations under the 1948 Genocide Convention in its crackdown against Hamas. South Africa has for decades backed the Palestinian cause for statehood in Israeli-occupied territories and has likened the plight of Palestinians to those of the Black majority in South Africa during the apartheid era.

# Truth and Energy’s nuclear engineer Hugo Kruger has emphasised the need for a Plan B to address the significant challenges facing Eskom. In an interview with Newzroom Afrika, Kruger points out that Eskom is consistently grappling with a substantial portion of its capacity under maintenance. He critiques the government’s claims of aggressive maintenance, asserting that true maintenance involves taking units offline, leading to more load-shedding. Kruger predicts that alternating stages of load-shedding will persist for at least the first six months of 2024:

# Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana has revealed that the National Treasury has devised a plan to enhance internal controls, curb fraudulent claims for funds, and improve compliance and reporting standards for irregular expenditure. This comes in response to concerns raised by the EFF about the Auditor-General’s findings that Treasury and its reporting entities achieved only a 69-percent clean audit rate. The plan includes contract management reviews and measures by entities like the Land Bank and Public Investment Corporation to address their audit issues.

# Five-thousand-298 trauma cases were treated at hospital emergency centres across the province between Thursday and Tuesday, accounting for more than a quarter of all cases seen in emergency rooms. According to the Western Cape Department of Health’s Hospital Emergency Centre Triage and Information System known as HECTIS, a total of 20-thousand-73 patients presented to emergency centres over the five days of the long weekend, with 26-percent of the cases related to trauma.  HECTIS shows there are around 110-thousand trauma cases reported at health facilities across the Western Cape every month.

Gauteng MEC for Health and Wellness, Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko meanwhile has expressed satisfaction at how the Gauteng Emergency Medical Service responded to emergencies during the festive period. She joined EMS personnel on the ground on New Year’s Eve as they responded to emergency calls. The department’s spokesperson, Motalatale Modiba says during the critical period between 6am on Sunday and 6am on New Year’s Day, the provincial Emergency Communication Centre recorded a total of one-thousand-914 calls:

# Cricket: After making an impressive Test debut for South Africa against India last week, batter David Bedingham hopes to continue his Test career at Newlands in Cape Town in the second and final game tomorrow. The 29-year-old made 56 in the first Test in Centurion as the Proteas beat India by an innings within three days. Bedingham has played English county cricket for Durham since 2020, but grew up in Cape Town. He says it would be extra special if he plays at Newlands today:

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 18-rand-58-cents and the euro at 20-rand-35-cents. One British pound costs 23-rand-47-cents and Bitcoin trades at 45-thousand-349-dollars-12-cents. Gold sells at two-thousand-63-dollars-91-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 75-dollars-85-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….