News 11:00

BULLETIN 10 April 11 am

Good morning. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# The MK Party is calling for IEC commissioner Janet Love to step down
# The UK will not suspend arms exports to Israel
# And tennis: Djokovic is up and running at the Monte Carlo Masters

# The MK Party wants Electoral Commission commissioner Janet Love to step down following the Electoral Court ruling. Yesterday, the court upheld the appeal by the party in its bid to keep former president Jacob Zuma on its parliamentary candidate list. In January, Love confirmed Zuma did not meet the requirements to register as a candidate to stand in this year’s elections. The party says the IEC prematurely prejudged Zuma’s eligibility and could therefore not have arrived at a different or fair outcome.

# The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse is calling for an independent investigation into maladministration at the Insurance Sectoral Education and Training Authority. On Monday, the authority lost its appeal against a court order to reinstate the accreditation of the Graduate Institute of Financial Sciences, as an approved training service provider to the insurance industry. Outa’s CEO, Wayne Duvenage, says whistleblowers have long claimed maladministration and alleged corruption at the authority:

# The National Prosecuting Authority has welcomed a 200-million-rand fine imposed on the Govan Mbeki Municipality in Mpumalanga for violating environmental laws. The fine issued by the Bethal Magistrate’s Court relates to the disposal of raw and untreated sewage into areas including the eMbalenhle wastewater treatment plant, and the Watervalhoek River, between November 2019 and September 2020. NPA’s spokesperson, Monica Nyuswa, says the court suspended 50-million-rand of the fine for five years:

# UK Foreign secretary David Cameron says his government will not suspend arms exports to Israel but will continue to act within international law. The UK government has faced mounting pressure over its weapons trade with Israel after an air strike killed seven World Central Kitchen staff, including three Britons. Cameron says allowing arms exports puts the UK in line with other like-minded countries, reiterating that they continue to have grave concerns around the humanitarian access issue in Gaza.

# Tennis: Two-time champion Novak Djokovic made light work of his first clay-court match of the year at the Monte Carlo Masters. The Serbian world number one defeated Russia’s Roman Safiullin, 6-1, 6-2, to reach the third round for the 14th time. He will meet Italian Lorenzo Musetti next, who upset Djokovic in Monte Carlo at the same stage last season. There were also wins for Germany’s Alexander Zverev and Poland’s Hubert Hurkacz. Djokovic is full of praise for Musetti:

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 18-rand-48-cents and the euro at 20-rand-5-cents. One British pound costs 23-rand-43-cents and Bitcoin trades at 69-thousand-402-dollars-61-cents. Gold sells at two-thousand-354-dollars-59-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 89-dollars-74-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….