News 09:00

BULLETIN 11 September 9 am

Good morning. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# The DA wants the Whistleblower Protections Bill tabled in Parliament immediately
# The Constitutional Court is going to rule on men assuming their wives’ surnames
# And Kamala Harris says Biden’s re-election bid was reckless

# The DA is calling on minister of Justice and Constitutional Development, Mmamoloko Kubayi, to table the long-promised Whistleblower Protections Bill in Parliament without delay. The party’s Glynnis Breytenbach says the brutal murder of Bouwer van Niekerk, shot dead at his law firm while working to expose corruption, has confirmed that South Africans are now living in a mafia state. She says the DA will not sit by while this Bill is buried in endless delays:

# The Constitutional Court will decide whether men can legally assume their wives’ surnames after marriage. This comes after two couples, Jana Jordaan and Henry Van Der Merwe, as well as Jess Donnelly-Bornman and Andreas Nicolas Bornman, challenged parts of Section 26 of the Births and Deaths Registration Act, arguing it unfairly discriminates on gender. Previously, the Free State High Court found the provision unconstitutional, but the ruling requires confirmation by the apex court.

# The GOOD Party says there is no proper plan in Cape Town to deal with gang violence. Eighty-one-percent of all murders in the province occur within the City of Cape Town. Gang-related murders continue to drive violence, making up one in five killings. GOOD’s secretary general, Brett Herron, says that over a year since the Western Cape government and the City of Cape Town signed a Cooperation Agreement with SAPS, the promised joint response to crime remains largely on paper:

# Former US vice president Kamala Harris has described former president Joe Biden’s decision to seek a second term as reckless. In an extract from her book 107 Days, she says this wasn’t a choice that should have been left to an individual’s ego or ambition. Harris says part of the problem was a Biden team so committed to not helping her that she says it ultimately came at his own and the country’s expense. She adds that Biden’s choice to run for re-election should have been more than a personal decision.

# Tennis: Australia Davis Cup captain Lleyton Hewitt has been handed a two-week suspension for “offensive conduct” after being found guilty of pushing a doping control official. The former world number one has also been fined 350-thousand-rand following an independent tribunal ruling under the Tennis Anti-Doping Programme. The International Tennis Integrity Agency said the 44-year-old was charged in January after he pushed a 60-year-old volunteer anti-doping chaperone following Australia’s Davis Cup semi-final defeat to Italy in Spain two months previously.

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 17-rand-48-cents and the euro at 20-rand-45-cents. One British pound costs 23-rand-65-cents and Bitcoin trades at 114-thousand-198-dollars. Gold sells at three-thousand-633-dollars-90-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 67-dollars-15-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….