News 08:00

BULLETIN 26 August 8 am

Good morning. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# Julius Malema emphasises the importance of black unity
# OUTA supports the amnesty period for legal firms
# And a British safety adviser for Reuters is killed in Ukraine

# EFF leader Julius Malema has called on his party’s members and supporters to not be shaken by the sudden departure of former deputy leader Floyd Shivambu. He left to join former president Jacob Zuma’s MK Party. Speaking in Newcastle, KwaZulu-Natal, Malema took a swipe at Zuma, who, after announcing Shivambu as the MK party’s national organiser, called for unity among progressive forces. Malema says black unity was necessary but not under an old man like Zuma:

# The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse says it supports Health minister Aaron Motsoaledi’s amnesty period in which lawyers can withdraw fraudulent medical negligence claims without fear of prosecution. A probe by the Special Investigating Unit found that over five years, a single law firm submitted 44 suspected fraudulent medico-legal claims worth 497-million-rand against the Eastern Cape Department of Health. Outa CEO Wayne Duvenhage says they are in support of the two-week amnesty as it fast-tracks the process of dealing with fraudulent claims.

# Eastern Cape premier Oscar Mabuyane is embarking on a strategic visit to China, leading a high-level delegation of officials and business leaders to the provinces of Heilongjiang and Zhejiang until Friday. The provincial government’s spokesperson, Khuselwa Rantjie says this pivotal trip aims to cement economic diplomacy and position the Eastern Cape as a prime destination for global trade, investment, and tourism:

# A British safety adviser for the Reuters news agency was killed and two journalists injured when a Russian strike hit a hotel in Kramatorsk, eastern Ukraine. Ryan Evans, who is a former soldier, was killed after a missile struck the Hotel Sapphire where he was staying as part of a six-person team. Reuters says it is urgently seeking more information about the attack, including by working with the authorities in Kramatorsk. Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskyy says the strike was purposeful as this is a daily Russian terror that continues.

# Golf: New Zealand’s Lydia Ko won the Women’s British Open at St Andrews by two shots, ending her eight-year major drought. The 27-year-old, who won the Olympic gold medal in Paris, overturned a three-stroke deficit during the final round and closed with a three-under-par 69 to win her third major. Defending champion American Lilia Vu finished joint second alongside her compatriot Nelly Korda, South Korea’s Jiyai Shin, and China’s Ruoning Yin. Ko says winning feels surreal:

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 17-rand-71-cents and the euro at 19-rand-82-cents. One British pound costs 23-rand-41-cents and Bitcoin trades at 64-thousand-140-dollars-67-cents. Gold sells at two-thousand-511-dollars-33-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 79-dollars-47-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….