News 08:00

BULLETIN 23 October 8 am

Good morning. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# President Ramaphosa acknowledges failure over a  delay in pardons
# The government investigates 134 gastrointestinal illness cases in the Eastern Cape
# And motorsport: Antonelli is targeting a perfect weekend in Austin

# President Cyril Ramaphosa has apologised and acknowledged a constitutional failure in not addressing the litigation by Simon Mofokeng and the late Tshokolo Joseph Mokoena. The two spent 19 years in prison after being wrongfully convicted for the 1992 murder of a police officer in the Free State. Earlier this week, the Constitutional Court unanimously ruled that Ramaphosa and three of his predecessors, Thabo Mbeki, Kgalema Motlanthe, and Jacob Zuma, failed in their constitutional obligations by delaying a joint presidential pardon application for 24 years. Ramaphosa says the delay was “deeply regrettable”.

# Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition, Parks Tau, says South Africa is working to turn China’s zero-tariff treatment for African countries into increased exports, local manufacturing and job creation. China introduced the unilateral preference scheme, which provides duty-free market access for 100-percent of products, with the exception of 47 tariff lines subject to tariff-rate quotas, for the period from May first this year to April 30th 2028. Tau says total bilateral trade between the two countries reached 642-billion-rand in 2025, up from 483-billion-rand in 2021:

# Government has launched an investigation into reported cases of gastrointestinal illness affecting 111 people at Rhodes University in Makhanda and 23 inmates at St Albans Correctional Centre in Nelson Mandela Bay, Eastern Cape. Those affected are experiencing symptoms including severe abdominal cramps, diarrhoea, vomiting and dehydration. Department of Water and Sanitation’s spokesperson Wisane Mavasa says laboratory test results of all the samples taken are still pending, but preliminary findings indicate that the spread is currently concentrated within the university and the prison:

# A federal judge has ordered US president Donald Trump to sit for a deposition in his 164.95-billion-rand defamation lawsuit against the BBC by December 11th, or face sanctions. Trump is seeking damages over a Panorama episode that edited together two different sections of a speech he gave before the US Capitol riots in 2021. He cancelled his October 16 deposition citing “matters of national importance” but spent that day campaigning in Georgia. The BBC wants the lawsuit dismissed, arguing that the programme does not meet the legal criteria for defamation.

# Motorsport: Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli admits that claiming his maiden Formula One title in the United States Grand Prix this weekend would be a dream. The Italian leads the Drivers’ Championship by a season-high 102 points. To become world champion on Sunday, Antonelli will need to win the race and hope his teammate George Russell finishes no higher than ninth and Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton finishes fifth or lower. Antonelli says he intends to just have fun:

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 16-rand-50-cents and the euro at 18-rand-51-cents. One British pound costs 22-rand-11-cents, and Bitcoin trades at 81-thousand-636-dollars. Gold sells at four-thousand-14-dollars-45-cents a fine ounce, and Brent crude oil is quoted at 114-dollars-97-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….