News 09:00

BULLETIN 22 October 9 am

Good morning. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# The deportation of illegal immigrants has cost 52-million-rand in the past five months
# Cosatu welcomes the seizure of 67-million-rand from a former Steinhoff executive
# And the Mpumalanga police are looking for the murderer of a two-year-old boy

# Home Affairs minister Leon Schreiber says between April and August this year, the department has deported 19-thousand-750 illegal immigrants. In a written parliamentary reply, he says this has cost taxpayers 52-million-rand. The minister says there are 68-thousand-991 active refugees in the country, mostly from Somalia, Ethiopia, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. There are 94-thousand-416 asylum seekers. Schreiber says increased funding for the Border Management Authority is urgently required.

# Cosatu has welcomed the South African Reserve Bank’s seizure of 67-million-rand from former Steinhoff’s legal head, Stéhan Grobler. The 64-year-old is facing charges of racketeering, fraud, manipulation of financial statements, and failing to report fraudulent activities. Cosatu’s, Matthew Parks, says this is a long overdue progressive step forward to recovering workers’ funds stolen during the biggest financial heist in South African history:

# Mpumalanga police says it has intensified the search for the suspects behind the murder of a two-year-old boy, who went missing from his home in eMbalenhle almost two weeks ago. Khayone Xavier Pakeni’s body was discovered in an open field in Extension 15 by a community member on Monday. Police spokesperson, Donald Mdluli, says a murder case has been opened, and they will do everything to arrest the people responsible for this gruesome crime:

# The Israel Defence Force says it has struck over three-thousand-200 Hezbollah targets since its ground operations started in southern Lebanon on the first of this month. About 300 were hit in the last 24 hours. In the latest attack, At least four people, including a child, were killed and 24 injured in an Israeli strike outside Rafik Hariri University Hospital in southern Beirut. The Israeli forces say its strikes have hit Hezbollah’s weapons storage facilities, anti-tank posts, and command-and-control centres.

# Soccer: Head coach Mikel Arteta has urged Arsenal to use the “pain” of their first defeat in six months as motivation in today’s Champions League clash against Shakhtar Donetsk. The Gunners suffered a shock 2-0 loss at the hands of Bournemouth on Saturday. It meant they lost ground at the top of the Premier League and finished the weekend four points behind leaders Liverpool. But Arteta, speaking at his pre-match press conference on Monday, said there was no need to panic after a first defeat since April.

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 17-rand-59-cents and the euro at 19-rand-4-cents. One British pound costs 22-rand-87-cents and Bitcoin trades at 67-thousand-409-dollars-4-cents. Gold sells at two-thousand-733-dollars-73-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 74-dollars-3-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….