News 08:00

BULLETIN 15 October 8 am

Good morning. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# President Ramaphosa says the Office of the Public Protector is the moral mirror of the state
# RISE Mzansi says the police’s Air Wing is in a dire state
# And Hamas has returned the bodies of another four deceased hostages

# President Cyril Ramaphosa says the Office of the Public Protector has played a vital part in the revolutionary act of fundamentally changing the relationship between the citizens and the state. He delivered the keynote address at the Public Protector of South Africa’s 30-year Anniversary International Conference in Cape Town on Tuesday evening. Ramaphosa says the Office of the Public Protector was envisioned as, and remains, the moral mirror of the state, adding that it has been the pride of the country’s constitutional order:

# RISE Mzansi says it is a major crisis that the South African Police Service has only 11 out of 38 aircraft in its ownership in operation. In a reply to a Parliamentary question, the Police Ministry revealed that 27 aircraft are currently undergoing maintenance. The ministry is in the process of procuring a further 15-helicopeters at a projected budget of 1.1-billion-rand. RISE Mzansi’s Makashule Gana says the dire state of the SAPS Air Wing does not bode well for the fight against crime:

# The EFF in Gauteng says the suspension of the provincial Health Department head, Lesiba Arnold Malotana, is nothing but a delaying tactic meant to shield him and buy time for internal political management. His name has featured in the Special Investigating Unit probe into tender fraud involving BAS MedExpress and the Masakhane Cook Freeze Factory, where millions were looted through kickbacks and irregular contracts. The EFF says Malotana’s tenure has been nothing short of catastrophic. It adds that Malotana should have been fired long ago, not suspended.

# Hamas returned the bodies of four more hostages on Tuesday, bringing to eight the number of deceased Israelis, out of a total of 28, returned from Gaza since Monday. The Palestinian armed group handed back 20 living and four deceased hostages on Monday. Hamas said it was facing obstacles as not all the burial sites had been identified. The remains of 45 deceased Palestinians were also returned to Gaza yesterday. The Israeli government has warned that it would restrict aid to Gaza until Hamas returns the bodies of all deceased hostages.

# Tennis: The lucrative Six Kings Slam with six of the world’s best players gets underway in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, today with the first quarterfinal between Germany’s Alexander Zverev and American Taylor Fritz. The other quarterfinal will be between Italian Jannik Sinner and Greece’s Stefanos Tsitsipas. The two winners will take on world number one, Carlos Alcaraz of Spain, and 24-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic of Serbia, respectively. All the participants in the exhibition tournament will earn 26.2-million-rand, plus another 78.5-million-rand for the winner.

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 17-rand-32-cents and the euro at 20-rand-13-cents. One British pound costs 23-rand-13-cents and Bitcoin trades at 112-thousand-369-dollars. Gold sells at four-thousand-184-dollars-77-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 61-dollars-92-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….