News 08:00

BULLETIN 13 February 8 am

Good morning. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# The Special Investigation Unit uncovers a fraudulent scheme at Eskom
# Another boy is successfully repatriated from Zimbabwe
# And Trump says peace negotiations in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict will start immediately

# The Special Investigating Unit says it has uncovered a scheme in which Eskom employees manipulated procurement processes to steal more than one-billion-rand. This was split into smaller contracts to avoid stricter oversight. Briefing the standing committee on Public Accounts on Wednesday, SIU head Andy Mothibi says the scheme extended to family members and networks of entities used to launder stolen funds. He added that 334 employees had financial ties to Eskom vendors, while five-thousand-464 employees failed to declare conflicts of interest:

# Parliament’s portfolio committee on Communications and Digital Technologies says it has sought legal advice on the desirability of instituting a parliamentary inquiry into the State Information Technology Agency’s affairs. In December last year, Communications and Digital Technologies minister Solly Malatsi requested the Public Service Commission to probe allegations of maladministration and governance issues at SITA. The committee says the inquiry would focus on governance and operational inefficiencies, high staff turnover at the executive level, and staff concerns.

# A young South African boy who has been missing for almost two years has been repatriated home from Zimbabwe. The child, who was just eleven-years-old when he went missing, disappeared from home and boarded a bus to Zimbabwe in May 2023, where he was dropped off at the Zengeza police station in Harare. The Department of Social Development’s spokesperson, Bathembu Futshane, says this set off a complex cross-border child protection case, which resulted in the boy being located and reunited with his family in Johannesburg:

# US president Donald Trump says he had a lengthy and highly productive phone call with Russian president Vladimir Putin on Wednesday, where they agreed that negotiations to end the Ukraine war will start immediately. Trump also called with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy about a lasting, reliable peace. Over 40-thousand civilians have died in the war. Trump says Secretary of State Marco Rubio will lead the peace negotiations:

# Tennis: Five-time Grand Slam champion Iga Swiatek’s quest for a fourth straight Qatar Open title is still on track, as she is through to the quarterfinals in Doha. The world number two from Poland battled past Czech Linda Noskova, 6-7, 6-4, 6-4, to record her 14th consecutive match win in the tournament. Swiatek will face Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan, who defeated Slovakia’s Rebecca Sramkova, 7-6, 6-2. Latvian Jelena Ostapenko and American Jessica Pegula were also victories in their respective matches.

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 18-rand-49-cents and the euro at 19-rand-25-cents. One British pound costs 23-rand-6-cents and Bitcoin trades at 97-thousand-503-dollars. Gold sells at two-thousand-915-dollars-50-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 74-dollars-25-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….