News 12:00

BULLETIN 2 June 12 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# Flooding leaves at least two people dead in the Eastern Cape
# Not all political parties are on board with a vote recount
# And, Rugby: The Blitzboks will contest the fifth-place semi-finals in Madrid

# Two people including a baby girl have died following flooding in Kariega in Nelson Mandela Bay, Eastern Cape, while four women are missing. The National Sea Rescue Institute’s spokesperson, Craig Lambinon, says up to 70 people have been safely removed to various mustering points in 55 rescue operations. Search and rescue operations are continuing:

# While the Electoral Commission considers vote result objections, not all political parties are on board with a revote. The commission has received 579 objections. Parties including the MK Party, Freedom Front Plus, ACDP, and UDM have accused the IEC of irregularities in the vote-capturing process. IFP president, Velenkosini Hlabisa, says a recount is not necessary as party agents were president during the counting phase. Patriotic Alliance leader Gayton McKenzie, who accused the DA in the Western Cape of stealing votes, said he would accept whatever decision the IEC took.

In other election news, the DA is calling on RISE Mzansi to come clean about the 15-million-rand donation it received from an organisation known as We Are The People. Political party funding disclosures have only been properly implemented in South Africa for the past three years. They enable voters to be more informed about who they vote for. The DA’s, Dion George, says the organisation in funnelling money donated to it to a political party, has also hidden the source of the funds behind the donation:

Meanwhile in India, where that country’s elections have been ongoing for the last six weeks, at least 33 Indian polling staff died on the last day of voting from heatstroke yesterday in just one state after scorching temperatures gripped swathes of the country. While there have been reports of multiple deaths from the intense heatwave, the dozens of staff dying in one day marks an especially grim toll. The India Meteorological Department said temperatures at Jhansi in Uttar Pradesh reached 46.9 degrees Celsius.

# And, finally, Rugby: The Springbok Sevens will take on Australia in the fifth-place semi-finals in Madrid today. This is after they lost all their three Pool B matches in Spain. On Friday, the Blitzboks lost 26-21 to Ireland, and on Saturday they suffered a 33-24 defeat against New Zealand and then 26-7 to Fiji to finish last in Pool B.

Stay tuned for more news………….