News 09:00

BULLETIN 27 July 9 am

Good morning. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# President Ramaphosa accepts Andrea Johnson’s resignation
# The Special Investigation Unit secures a preservation order against the former PRASA CEO
# And, the Berlin Pride attacker is shot dead by the police

# President Cyril Ramaphosa has accepted the request by Investigating Directorate Against Corruption head, Advocate Andrea Johnson, to vacate office with immediate effect. She had written a letter to the president and National Director of Public Prosecutions, Andy Mothibi, requesting to resign with immediate effect, and for her three-month notice period to be waived. Ramaphosa’s spokesperson, Vincent Magwenya, says the president has thanked Johnson for her years of service:

# The Special Investigating Unit has secured a preservation order from the Special Tribunal to freeze two multimillion-rand properties linked to former Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa Group CEO Lucky Montana. The preserved assets comprise a Hurlingham, Johannesburg property purchased for 13.5-million-rand and a Waterkloof, Pretoria property bought for 2.25-million-rand. The SIU’s spokesperson, Selby Makgotho, told Newzroom Afrika that its investigation uncovered a money trail linking the properties to PRASA’s controversial 5.6-billion-rand Integrated Security Access Management System tender:

# The Inter-Ministerial Committee on Migration says operations at the Musina Temporary Repatriation Processing Centre in Limpopo will be scaled down from 20-thousand to one-thousand-500 capacity from the first of August. This follows a sustained decline in the number of undocumented foreign nationals requiring processing at the facility. More than 68-thousand foreign nationals have been processed for repatriation or deportation at the centre since June. Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development, Mmamoloko Kubayi, says the phased reduction in operations will not compromise government’s ability to process undocumented foreign nationals or carry out deportations and repatriations.

# German police have shot dead the suspect responsible for the “Islamist terror attack” at Berlin’s Pride celebrations. The man identified as 21-year-old Abdul Ballout, a German citizen with Lebanese heritage, drove a van into a crowd of people near Tiergarten Park before stabbing several people with a machete. One person died and at least 29 were injured. Ballout was shot and killed during a confrontation with police at an allotment garden complex in Berlin’s Spandau district. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz condemned the incident as a “heinous act”.

# Cycling: Slovenian Tadej Pogačar has won a record-equalling fifth Tour de France title, confirming his status as one of the sport’s all-time greats. The 27-year-old UAE Team Emirates-XRG rider finished six-minutes-and-26-seconds ahead of Belgian rider Remco Evenepoel in the overall standings, with Mexican Isaac del Toro finishing third. The three-week Grand Tour’s final stage was won by the Netherlands’ Mathieu van der Poel of Alpecin-Premier Tech. Pogačar, who won five stages at this year’s race, described the victory as special:

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 16-rand-72-cents and the euro at 19-rand-6-cents. One British pound costs 22-rand-32-cents, and Bitcoin trades at 65-thousand-336-dollars. Gold sells at four-thousand-88-dollars-46-cents a fine ounce, and Brent crude oil is quoted at 92-dollars-88-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….