News 08:00

BULLETIN 27 December 8 am

Good morning. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# The Activists and Citizens Forum says violence and a prison break in Mozambique spark regional concern
# Cable theft and vandalism leave some of Johannesburg’s residents in the dark until Monday
# And Cricket: India’s Virat Kohli is fined for shoulder bumping Sam Konstas during the fourth Australian Test

The Activists and Citizens Forum has urged SADC countries to address Mozambique’s escalating post-election violence. This follows a mass prison break in Maputo this week and ongoing post-election protests. Opposition leader Venancio Mondlane called for calm, while president-elect Daniel Chapo pledged electoral reforms. The Forum’s Dennis Bloem emphasised dialogue, citing regional economic impacts and the tragic loss of lives:

Meanwhile, Mondlane, has announced plans to install himself as president on 15 January. His announcement comes despite a court ruling confirming Daniel Chapo’s victory in the disputed 9 October election. Mondlane, accusing widespread vote rigging, insists on claiming the presidency the same day Chapo is set to be sworn in. Violent protests erupted after the election results, with 150 deaths reported since October, as clashes between protesters and security forces escalate across the country.

# Some Johannesburg residents will remain in the dark until Monday after vandals stole cables and destroyed City Power’s infrastructure. The incident interrupted power supply to customers around the Johannesburg CBD, Marshalltown, City and Suburban, Selby, and surrounding areas. City Power spokesperson Isaac Mangena said at least 60-percent of customers who were affected by the outage were restored:

# The Azerbaijan Airlines plane that crashed on Christmas Day reportedly was downed by a Russian air defence system. The Embraer 190 passenger jet was en route from Azerbaijan’s capital of Baku to the Russian city of Grozny and crashed a few kilometres from Aktau in Kazakhstan. There were 67 people on board, with 38 killed and the survivors all injured. According to Reuters one of its Azerbaijani sources claims preliminary results of the investigation showed a Russian Pantsir-S air defence system struck the plane. An unnamed US official made a similar assessment.

# Cricket: Virat Kohli’s conduct came under the microscope in the Boxing Day test in Melbourne on Thursday after a clash of shoulders with teen debutant Sam Konstas. The Indian veteran made forceful contact with the 19-year-old debutant after Konstas belted the bowlers around the Melbourne Cricket Ground on his way to a blistering 60 off 65 balls. The International Cricket Council fined Kohli with 20-percent of his match fee and awarded one demerit point for breaching the ICC Code of Conduct. Former India coach Ravi Shastri called Kohli’s actions “absolutely unnecessary”.

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 18-rand-84-cents and the euro at 19-rand-61-cents. One British pound costs 23-rand-59-cents and Bitcoin trades at 96-thousand-202-dollars. Gold sells at two-thousand-633-dollars-72-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 72-dollars-79-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….