News 08:00

BULLETIN 8 March 8 am

Good morning. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# President Ramaphosa says government programmes don’t stop because it is election season
# The PSA is concerned by the state of some government buildings
# And tennis: Simona Halep makes her competitive return at the Miami Open

# President Cyril Ramaphosa says government has been having imbizo’s for the last five years and government programmes do not stop because it is election season. Yesterday, he was accompanied by several ministers in Emalahleni, Mpumalanga, for the 12th District Development Model Presidential Imbizo. ActionSA accused the president of using government resources to campaign for the ANC. Ramaphosa says government must continue to work even in an election year:

# The Public Servants Association says the condition of various government buildings is concerning. The Department of Public Works and Infrastructure has revealed that it needs close to 14-billion-rand to keep all the government buildings in its portfolio well-maintained and in running order. However, it is only getting 5.7-billion-rand from the national budget. The department currently oversees 56-thousand-393 buildings. The association says in most cases corruption and maladministration have led to government buildings falling apart.

# The DA in Johannesburg says it has written a letter to mayor Kabelo Gwamanda demanding him to urgently address the current water crisis in the metro. A massive outage left many in parts of the metro without water supply during this week following issues experienced at Rand Water’s Eikenhof pump station. Even though water has been restored in parts of Johannesburg, taps are still dry in Roodepoort and Randburg. The DA’s, Nicole van Dyk, says this matter needs urgent attention:

# Unknown gunmen have abducted at least 287 pupils at a school in Nigeria’s north-west region. According to reports, the gunmen on motorcycles rode through the school after the morning assembly in Kuriga, taking the pupils aged between eight and 15 along with a teacher. Kidnap gangs, known as bandits, have seized hundreds of people in recent years, especially in the north-west. This comes days after more than 200 people, mostly women and children were abducted allegedly by the Boko Haram Islamist group in north-eastern Nigeria.

# Tennis: Two-time Grand Slam champion Simona Halep has confirmed she will make her competitive return at the Miami Open, which begins on the 17th of this month. The 32-year-old Romanian has accepted a wildcard entry into the tournament in Florida. Halep’s return comes after the Court of Arbitration for Sport reduced her four-year doping ban to nine months, which she has already served. The former world number one says she cannot wait to be back on court and competing again.

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 18-rand-69-cents and the euro at 20-rand-46-cents. One British pound costs 23-rand-94-cents and Bitcoin trades at 67-thousand-295-dollars-62-cents. Gold sells at two-thousand-156-dollars-67-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 83-dollars-27-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….