News 08:00

BULLETIN 25 March 8 am

Good morning. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# The Health minister says notable progress has been made in the fight against TB
# Eskom is ordered to provide information on its existing coal and diesel contracts to AfriForum
# And four men are charged in connection with the concert hall terror attack in Moscow

# Health minister Joe Phaahla says although South Africa remains among the tuberculosis high burden countries, there has been notable progress in the country’s fight against the disease. The minister commemorated World TB Day in Gauteng yesterday. A steady decline has been noted in the number of people diagnosed with TB in the country each year since 2007 where the figure was 644-thousand compared to 280-thousand in 2022. Phaahla says the department’s TB Strategic Plan is fully aligned with the National Strategic Plan:

# Eskom has until the fifth of next month to provide AfriForum with the requested information regarding its existing coal and diesel contracts. This follows a ruling by the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria following the civil rights organisation Promotion of Access to Information Act application. AfriForum’s Louis Boshoff says they suspect that the information contained in these contracts may reveal possible irregularities and corruption at the power utility. He says Eskom, one of the country’s largest and most important state-owned enterprises, has a legal obligation to operate transparently and responsibly.

# The City of Ekurhuleni’s Municipal Public Accounts Committee will begin holding public hearings this week on the audit report released by the Auditor General recently. For 2022/2023, the Metro received an unqualified audit opinion with material findings. The city’s spokesperson, Zweli Dlamini, says paramount to the discussions will be the Auditor General’s findings on Ekurhuleni’s unauthorised, irregular, fruitless, and wasteful expenditure:

# Russia has charged four men believed to be behind the attack on the Crocus City concert hall that left 137 people dead and 100 injured last week Friday in Moscow. They have been charged with committing an act of terrorism. Seven other people have been arrested in Russia suspected of aiding the attack, which the Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for. The four have been remanded in custody until the 22nd of May for a pre-trial. This is the deadliest attack by any group in Russia since 2004.

# Cricket: The Gujarat Titans pulled off a narrow six-run victory over the Mumbai Indians to start their Indian Premier League campaign in Ahmedabad. The Titans posted 168 for six in their 20 overs with Jasprit Bumrah taking three wickets. In reply, Mumbai suffered a late-innings collapse, as they lost seven wickets for just 55 runs to finish short on 162 for nine. Meanwhile in Jaipur, the Rajasthan Royals recorded a comfortable 20-run victory in their opener against the Lucknow Super Giants.

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 18-rand-92-cents and the euro at 20-rand-48-cents. One British pound costs 23-rand-88-cents and Bitcoin trades at 66-thousand-789-dollars-62-cents. Gold sells at two-thousand-172-dollars-72-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 85-dollars-99-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….