News 09:00

BULLETIN 10th October 9 am

Good morning. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# The government says law enforcement is part of its mandate
# The police commissioner says no secret funds were used to finance the political killings task team
# And an education activist says the violent protests at Fort Hare have no place in a democratic society

# National police commissioner Fannie Masemola says no secret funds were used to finance the political killings task team. In his testimony before Parliament’s ad hoc committee, Masemola said the team’s operations were funded through the national police budget, managed by himself and the chief financial officer. He dismissed claims that the team drew resources from secret intelligence funds, adding that any collaboration with Crime Intelligence would have been financed separately:

# Government says it has noted the ongoing operations by law enforcement agencies and the subsequent public interest they have generated. Members of the National Intervention Unit, Special Task Force, and Crime Intelligence, raided the homes of suspended deputy National Police Commissioner Shadrack Sibiya and chief of staff to on-leave Police minister Senzo Mchunu, Cedrick Nkabinde, yesterday. Government deputy spokesperson, William Baloyi, says these operations fall within the normal scope of the law enforcement agencies’ mandate to investigate matters and recover assets:

# Education activist, Hendrick Makaneta, says the burning of buildings and disruption of learning at the University of Fort Hare in the Eastern Cape is deeply troubling and cannot be justified. Students have been protesting at the Alice campus since Monday over Vice-Chancellor Sakhela Buhlungu’s alleged failure to deal with mismanagement at the institution. The students are also not happy with the suspension of the SRC president and the institution’s plan to appoint an interim student leader. Makaneta says the students have raised genuine concerns:

# A French court has rejected the appeal of a former construction worker found guilty last year of the aggravated rape of Gisèle Pelicot. Her husband, Dominique Pelicot, drugged her over nearly a decade, recruiting dozens of men online to rape her while she was unconscious. Forty-four-year-old Husamettin Dogan was the only man, out of 51, who appealed his guilty verdict. The court rejected Dogan’s appeal and increased his prison sentence by a year to ten years.

# Tennis: Novak Djokovic looked far from his best but dispatched Belgium’s Zizou Bergs 6-3, 7-5 to set up a Shanghai Masters semi-final against tournament surprise package Valentin Vacherot. The 38-year-old Serbian, the highest-ranking player left standing, is getting ever closer to a fifth title in the Chinese financial hub despite struggling physically throughout the week. Next in the crosshairs of the 24-time Grand Slam champion is world number 204 Vacherot, a qualifier from Monaco who battled back from a set down to stun Holger Rune 2-6, 7-6, 6-4.

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 17-rand-20-cents and the euro at 19-rand-90-cents. One British pound costs 22-rand-88-cents and Bitcoin trades at 121-thousand-408-dollars. Gold sells at three-thousand-952-dollars-3-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 64-dollars-74-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….