News 09:00

BULLETIN 25 May 9 am

Good morning. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# Minister Steenhuisen calls on provinces to speed up vaccinations
# ActionSA says Kieswetter is the right person to head up the new police panel
# And motorsport: Antonelli wins the Canadian Grand Prix

# Minister of Agriculture, John Steenhuisen, is calling on all provincial departments to prioritise vaccinating as many animals as possible over the coming weeks. This follows the arrival of the first batch of a 3.5-million-dose consignment of Biogénesis Bagó foot-and-mouth disease vaccines. This is the largest single consignment of FMD vaccines ever imported into South Africa. The department’s spokesperson, Joylene van Wyk, says defeating FMD requires a unified national effort across government, industry and farming communities:

# ActionSA says former South African Revenue Service commissioner, Edward Kieswetter, is the right person to chair the newly established Police Advisory Panel. The panel’s primary mandate is to evaluate progress on the police’s reset agenda and accelerate the implementation of recommendations from the Madlanga Commission. The commission has heard testimony of corruption and criminal infiltration in the higher structures of SAPS. ActionSA says Kieswetter is well placed to help professionalise and rebuild the police service, much like the role he played in restoring SARS into a capable and respected institution.

# The City of Tshwane Emergency Services Department says firefighters discovered a body under rubble during mop-up operations, following a shack fire that ripped through Plastic View informal settlement yesterday. Approximately 150 shacks were affected. Emergency Services spokesperson, Nana Radebe-Kgiba, says during the search and recovery operations, firefighters discovered the body among the debris. She says the person was unfortunately unable to evacuate when the fire started:

# The World Health Organisation has raised the Ebola risk in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo to very high. There are 904 suspected cases and 119 suspected deaths. The Bundibugyo strain, with a 30-to-50-percent fatality rate and no approved vaccine, has spread from the DRC’s Ituri province, the epicentre of the outbreak, into other provinces and neighbouring Uganda. WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom ​Ghebreyesus says the ongoing conflict in the Ituri province is severely impeding efforts to scale up Ebola contact tracing and identify infections early enough to provide supportive care.

# Motorsport: Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli has extended his lead in the Drivers’ Championship to 43 points after winning the Canadian Grand Prix. This is the Italian’s fourth consecutive win. George Russell, who started on pole, retired from the race while battling with his teammate Antonelli due to a power unit issue. Seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton finished second for Ferrari with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen in third. Antonelli says this is not really how he wanted to win:

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 16-rand-33-cents and the euro at 19-rand. One British pound costs 22-rand, and Bitcoin trades at 77-thousand-4-dollars. Gold sells at four-thousand-562-dollars-37-cents a fine ounce, and Brent crude oil is quoted at 95-dollars-5-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….