News 11:00

BULLETIN 8 August 11 am

Good morning. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# The Home Affairs minister says the Miss SA saga shows the need for digital modernisation
# Minister Ramokgopa reveals that most claims against the state come from state-owned enterprises
# And Olympic Games: Miné de Klerk started the action for Team SA today

# Home Affairs minister Leon Schreiber says the case around the citizenship of Miss SA contestant, Chidimma Adetshina, highlights the urgent need for the digital modernisation of the department’s processes. An ongoing investigation by the department has found prima facie evidence of fraud and identity theft committed by Adetshina’s mother. Schreiber says the digital modernisation of applications, adjudication, and verification processes will protect the department against fraud:

# Minister of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation, Maropene Ramokgopa, says most claims against the state emanate from reckless and negligent conduct from state-owned entity officials. For the financial year ending 31 March 2023, contingent liabilities, which emanated out of legal court proceedings, stood at 21-billion-rand. Transnet alone has 49 litigation claims against it, including alleged recklessness, negligence, and misconduct of a functionary or an official. Ramokgopa says state institutions must make provisions for contingent liabilities.

# The DA in KwaZulu-Natal says the passing of various departmental budgets must dispel any idea that the government of provincial unity is fragile, or that there are rifts in the leadership. The party’s Imran Keeka says the provincial government worked to block attempts by the MK Party and its EFF coalition partner to prevent the lawful flow of money to provincial departments. He says had they succeeded, services in the province would have collapsed beyond recovery:

# The US State Department is calling for a swift and thorough investigation into allegations of sexual abuse of Palestinian detainees by Israeli soldiers. Leaked surveillance video shows soldiers sexually assaulting a Palestinian detainee at Sde Teiman base in Israel’s Negev desert. A United Nations report has revealed that over 50 Palestinian detainees from the Gaza Strip and the West Bank have died since October seven. The department’s spokesperson, Matthew Miller, says the allegations are horrific:

# Olympic Games: Miné de Klerk started the action for South Africa in Paris today in the qualification round of the women’s shot put. Then Marioné Fourie runs in the repechage round of the women’s 100-metre hurdles. Later, the men’s team will start in the first round of the four-by-100-metre relay. The team earlier received the bad news that the second-fastest South African of all times, Benjamin Richardson, won’t be able to compete after sustaining a leg injury.

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 18-rand-33-cents and the euro at 20-rand-7-cents. One British pound costs 23-rand-30-cents and Bitcoin trades at 57-thousand-310-dollars-58-cents. Gold sells at two-thousand-398-dollars-75-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 78-dollars-13-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….