News 09:00

BULLETIN 19 January 9 am

Good morning. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# Liquidators are suing the ANC and the owners of Regiments Capital over a 50-million-rand donation
# AfriForum is concerned about the early school leaving rate
# And, Tshwane’s first deputy mayor says it’s a priority to ensure basic services are consistently delivered

# Liquidators of Regiments Capital are suing the ANC and the company’s owners to recover 50-million-rand that the company channelled to the party in 2016. According to the Daily Maverick, the money was paid into attorney Naheem Raheman’s trust account allegedly to hide the donation. The money was used to settle outstanding debts incurred by the ANC during its 2016 election campaign. In court documents, the liquidators say the payment by Regiments and a move to record it as a share-sale agreement was done with the intent to defraud the company’s creditors.

# AfriForum says it is concerned about the group of learners who never even participate in matric examinations. According to statistics of the Department of Basic Education’s report, one-million-208-thousand-and-973 learners found themselves in grade one of so-called ordinary schools in 2011. In contrast, 715-thousand full-time and 182-thousand part-time learners wrote the matric exams last year, of whom 15-thousand-186 were in independent schools. AfriForum’s Nicolene Müller says it is extremely worrying that so many learners have disappeared from the system:

# Newly elected City of Tshwane’s first deputy mayor ActionSA’s, Nasiphi Moya, says work to ensure the metro and its residents get access to the services they desperately need is necessary. She was elected during a special council meeting yesterday, getting support from parties in the governing DA-led coalition, which has a combined majority of 109 seats in the 214-seat council. Moya says accelerated infrastructure development and maintenance must become the driver of Tshwane’s growth:

# Soccer: Egypt, record seven-time Africa Cup of Nations winners, fought back twice to draw two-all with Ghana in their second game of the tournament. The Black Stars twice led through goals from Mohammed Kudus, but the Pharaohs hit back through Omar Marmoush and Mostafa Mohamed to salvage a share of the points. Ghana is still bottom of Group B on one point, while Egypt climbed to second on two points. In Group A, Nigeria defeated hosts Ivory Coast one-nil, while Equatorial Guinea beat Guinea-Bissau four-two.

# The financial indicators: The dollar trades at 18-rand-91-cents and the euro at 20-rand-59-cents. One British pound costs 24-rand-4-cents and Bitcoin trades at 41-thousand-103-dollars-94-cents. Gold sells at two-thousand-21-dollars-10-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 78-dollars-93-cents a barrel.

# And finally, the inaugural Mazaalai International Snow and Ice Festival in Mongolia has set a new Guinness World Record, for the largest number of people sliding down an ice slide simultaneously. A total of 408 attendees helped secure the record by going down the festival’s 16.4-meter-long ice slide, one after the other for an hour. The main attraction of the festival, which ends on the 28th of this month, is a large ice sculpture depicting the country’s protected Gobi bear, Mazaalai, and her cubs, aimed at raising awareness of the critically endangered animal.

Stay tuned for more news………….