News 08:00

BULLETIN 9 February 8 am

Good morning. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# The DA says the State of the Nation address was a laundry list of recycled promises
# Ukraine’s top commander is fired marking the country’s biggest military shake-up
# And cricket, Durban’s Super Giants are through to the S20 final

# DA leader John Steenhuisen has described president Cyril Ramaphosa’s State of the Nation address as a laundry list of recycled promises. The address was the last one for the sixth administration ahead of the general elections this year. Steenhuisen says none of the promises made by Ramaphosa in his last five SONA speeches have ever been kept, and not a single piece of pragmatic, workable legislation has been tabled in Parliament to realise his new dawn:

Meanwhile, ActionSA says Ramaphosa appropriated the progress of the ANC made under presidents Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki, while distancing himself from its failures and corruption during president Jacob Zuma’s state capture era. The president delivered the State of the Nation address yesterday evening. ActionSA’s, Athol Trollip, says the reality is that low-impact interventions have done little to demonstrate real accountability for corruption, address load-shedding, improve educational outcomes, or grow the job-killing economy:

# The Pretoria Asset Forfeiture Unit of the National Prosecuting Authority has secured another preservation order of over three-million-rand in an ongoing investigation into a gold mining syndicate in Khutsong and Carletonville. Homes, cars, and money belonging to seven people linked to the syndicate were seized. The NPA says the Asset Forfeiture Unit had already obtained three preservation orders relating to this case last year. It says all four orders amount to more than 20-million-rand comprising 55 vehicles, 10 properties, as well as 91-thousand-rand cash and other valuable assets.

# Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has fired his top army commander, Valerii Zaluzhnyi, saying there is a need for renewal in the armed forces. This marks the biggest change to the country’s military leadership in two years. Zaluzhnyi’s replacement is Oleksandr Syrskyi, who since 2019 has served as the Commander of Ukrainian Land Forces. Zelenskyy has denied any political motivation for this decision, saying the difficult situation being faced by frontline troops in its war with Russia required a new approach.

# Cricket: Durban’s Super Giants booked their place in the SA20 final following a 69-run victory over the Joburg Super Kings at the Wanderers. Heinrich Klaasen smashed 74 off just 30 balls and Wiaan Mulder struck an unbeaten half-century, to power the Super Giants to 211 for six. In reply, Junior Dala claimed four wickets as the Super Kings were bowled out for 142. Durban’s Super Giants will face defending champions the Sunrisers Eastern Cape at Newlands tomorrow. Mulder says consistency has been key for the team:

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 18-rand-95-cents and the euro at 20-rand-41-cents. One British pound costs 23-rand-91-cents and Bitcoin trades at 46-thousand-83-dollars-47-cents. Gold sells at two-thousand-33-dollars-57-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 81-dollars-56-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….