News 11:00

BULLETIN 11 March 11 am

Good morning. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# A New Brenthurst survey shows the uMkhonto we Sizwe Party could outperform the EFF
# Government spends over ten-million-rand on suspended director generals
# And news agencies retract the latest photo of the Princess of Wales due to possible manipulation

# The ANC’s support appears to be in freefall, at 39-percent, making a coalition government more likely. This is according to a new national survey by the Brenthurst Foundation. The survey shows the support for the DA nationally has risen to 27-percent and uMkhonto we Sizwe Party is at 13-percent, with the EFF trailing behind with ten-percent. In Gauteng, the Multi-Party Charter’s support is at 38-percent, with the ANC at 34-percent. In KwaZulu-Natal, MK is set to be the largest party, with 25-percent of the vote and the ANC at 20-percent.

# Government has paid out more than ten-million-rand for Directors General who were placed on suspension with full pay in the past few years. This was revealed in a written parliamentary reply from the Presidency to a DA question. The Directors General were investigated for allegations including misconduct from the financial years 2020/21 and 2022/23. Defence and Military Veterans Director General, Irene Mpolweni, has been on suspension since March last year. The DA’s Mimmy Gondwe says this is a concern:

# Johannesburg Water says it will deploy more water tankers to several Randburg areas today due to the water shortage crisis. Seven reservoirs drained empty yesterday, leaving large parts of Randburg without water. This prolonged water outage was set in motion by a lightning strike which downed the Eikenhof pump station last week. Johannesburg Water’s spokesperson, Nombuso Shabalala, says technical teams are monitoring the progress of the Linden One and Blairgowrie reservoirs as they continue to be areas of focus:

# Several major news agencies have withdrawn an image of the Princess of Wales and her children, saying they believe the photo has been manipulated. Kensington Palace published the picture, which was taken by Prince William, yesterday. It was the first official photo of Catherine since her abdominal surgery in January. The Associated Press says one of the things it noted with the image was an inconsistency in the alignment of Princess Charlotte’s left hand. Reuters and French news agency Agence France-Presse have also retracted the photo.

# Tennis: Defending champion Carlos Alcaraz is through to the fourth round at Indian Wells. The Spaniard defeated Canada’s Felix Auger-Aliassime 6-2, 6-3, to extend his winning streak in the US tournament to eight matches. Italian third seed Jannik Sinner beat German Jan-Lennard Struff 6-3, 6-4, to progress to the round of 16, while eleventh seed Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece defeated American Frances Tiafoe in straight sets. Alcaraz says he is really happy with his level at the moment:

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 18-rand-72-cents and the euro at 20-rand-49-cents. One British pound costs 24-rand-7-cents and Bitcoin trades at 69-thousand-849-dollars-86-cents. Gold sells at two-thousand-179-dollars-17-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 81-dollars-90-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….