News 11:00

BULLETIN 1 November 11 am

Good morning. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# The Malawi High Court blocks the Bushiri couple’s extradition to South Africa
# AfriForum claims victory over Nersa, while the court rules its tariff approval was unconstitutional
# And, Dutch centrist Rob Jetten claims victory in a neck-and-neck election race

# The High Court in Lilongwe, Malawi, has overturned a magistrate’s decision to extradite pastors Sheppard and Mary Bushiri to South Africa. The couple, facing fraud, theft, and money-laundering charges, fled South Africa in 2020 while out on bail. The court ruled they were denied the right to be heard and found irregularities in the extradition process. The decision halts their return, with the Bushiris maintaining they will only face trial if guaranteed fairness.

# Deputy president Paul Mashatile has reaffirmed the government’s commitment to transformative policies, including Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment. Speaking at the inaugural Youth Investment Indaba in Johannesburg, Mashatile highlighted youth unemployment and stressed entrepreneurship as a solution. Mashatile unveiled a 100-billion-rand Transformation Fund and endorsed the National Youth Fund to support Black-owned businesses and youth-led enterprises. He urged collaboration across government, private sector, and social partners to foster inclusive economic growth:

# The High Court in Pretoria has ruled that Nersa’s process for approving municipal electricity tariffs is unconstitutional. The court found that Nersa failed to follow proper cost studies and public participation procedures. AfriForum won the case with costs, securing new deadlines for public input before tariff approvals. The court ordered Nersa to finalise decisions by May 2026. AfriForum’s Deidré Steffens hailed the ruling as a win for all electricity consumers:

Meanwhile Eskom says South Africa’s power grid performed reliably in October, with the Energy Availability Factor rising to 65.9-percent, up 3.66-percent from last year. Koeberg Unit 1 returned to the grid, boosting baseload capacity, while diesel use dropped sharply. Unplanned outages fell by one-thousand-69-megawatts compared to 2024. Eskom spokesperson Daphne Mokwena confirmed 168 consecutive days without load-shedding and confirmed plans to return two-thousand-400-megawatts ahead of the evening peak on Monday:

# Centrist liberal leader Rob Jetten has claimed victory in Wednesday’s nail-biting Dutch election, after vote analysis indicated his party could not be beaten by anti-Islam populist Geert Wilders. Jetten’s D66 party currently has a narrow lead of 15-thousand votes over Wilders’ Freedom Party, and Dutch news agency ANP says even though the vote count is not complete, Wilders can no longer win. No Dutch election race has ever been so close, and if Jetten does become prime minister, he will be the first openly gay and youngest in Dutch history.  

# And tennis: Jannik Sinner took a step closer to reclaiming the world number one ranking with a comfortable victory over Ben Shelton in the Paris Masters quarterfinals on Friday, setting up a clash with reigning champion Alexander Zverev. The Italian powered to a 6-3, 6-3 win over his fifth-seeded opponent and will next face Zverev, who beat Daniil Medvedev 2-6, 6-3, 7-6. Sinner is looking to take advantage of rival Carlos Alcaraz’s shock second-round loss to Cameron Norrie. He will overtake Alcaraz at the top of the rankings by winning the title in Paris.

Stay tuned for more news………….