News 11:00

BULLETIN 27 May 11 am

Good morning. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# President Ramaphosa says the ultimate winner of this election should be democracy
# The FF Plus slams Ramaphosa for misusing government resources in his pre-election address
# And there are calls for an immediate ceasefire following a deadly Israeli strike in Rafah

# President Cyril Ramaphosa says holding free, fair, and peaceful elections is a barometer of the good health of South Africa’s democracy. South African voters join approximately 1.5 billion people, who will be casting their votes in elections in more than 80 countries around the world this year. In his weekly newsletter, Ramaphosa says the integrity of the country’s elections is testament to the high regard in which citizens hold their hard-won right to vote. He adds that the ultimate winner of this election should be democracy.

Meanwhile, the Freedom Front Plus has criticised Ramaphosa’s televised address yesterday evening as blatant political opportunism and shameless misuse of government resources. Ramaphosa encouraged South Africans to vote on Wednesday, and then also took the opportunity to highlight his government’s achievements over the past five years. FF Plus leader, Pieter Groenewald, says the address was a blatant attempt at persuading the public to vote for the ANC:

# Border Management Authority says 28 Bangladeshis were intercepted on arrival at OR Tambo International Airport during an intelligence-driven operation on a flight from Dubai over the weekend. Twenty-seven were found to have fraudulent visas and one did not have a visa at all. The authority’s Mmemme Mogotsi says the travellers were in contravention of the South African Immigration Act by possessing fraudulent travel documents:

# Doctors Without Borders has reiterated its call for an immediate and sustained ceasefire in Gaza. This comes after at least 35 people were killed in an Israeli strike on a camp for displaced people in Rafah yesterday. The Israel Defence Forces claims it struck a Hamas compound in the area, killing two senior officials of the militant group. It says it would review reports the strike killed civilians. Doctors Without Borders says this attack once again shows that nowhere is safe in Gaza.

# Tennis: Fourteen-time champion Rafael Nadal says he relishes facing Germany’s Alexander Zverev in the first round of the French Open today. The Spaniard has only played four tournaments since January last year after suffering a hip injury and then a muscle tear. This has left him unseeded for the second Grand Slam of the year. Nadal says he expected to get a tough opponent in the opening round:

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 18-rand-42-cents and the euro at 19-rand-98-cents. One British pound costs 23-rand-48-cents and Bitcoin trades at 68-thousand-431-dollars-58-cents. Gold sells at two-thousand-339-dollars-98-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 82-dollars-26-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….