News 12:00

BULLETIN 12 August 12 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# The DA in Gauteng accuses Lesufi of protecting corrupt officials
# Another deadly accident involving learner transport takes place in Mpumalanga
# And, the Olympic Games’ closing ceremony had a Hollywood twist

# The DA in Gauteng says premier Panyaza Lesufi’s failure to produce one approved fraud detection review report for the fourth quarter indicates that he has no intention of rooting out corruption. The party’s provincial leader, Solly Msimanga, says Lesufi’s office claims the report could not be completed because of the complexity of the project and a shortage of resources. He says the fraud detection report is critical in assisting the provincial government to clamp down on and stamp out corruption:

Staying in Gauteng: MEC for Education Matome Chiloane says the placement for Grades 1 and 8 will begin on the 16th of September. The department received 325-thousand-712 online applications for Grade 1 and 442-thousand-952 for Grade 8 for the 2025 academic year. Chiloane says placement offers cannot be issued to all parents on the announced date, hence offers will be issued throughout the rest of the year until all learners have been placed:

# A multiple-vehicle accident involving a truck, a school bus, and a bakkie has left at least three people dead on KaNyamazane road in Mpumalanga this morning. Twenty-seven people have been transported to hospital. This comes just a few weeks after six children died when the learner bus they were travelling in collided with a train in Middelburg, Mpumalanga.

# Golf: LIV Golf has suspended and fined Graeme McDowell for one tournament for using a decongestant medicine that included a banned substance. He says after struggling with severe congestion that was affecting his sleep, he used a generic Vicks nasal decongestant without realising it might be on the banned list. The 2010 US Open winner says he deeply regrets this oversight. McDowell will miss this week’s event in West Virginia and is eligible to return to competition in Chicago next month.

# The financial indicators: The dollar trades at 18-rand-24-cents and the euro at 19-rand-92-cents. One British pound costs 23-rand-29-cents and Bitcoin trades at 58-thousand-836-dollars-21-cents. Gold sells at two-thousand-441-dollars-21-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 80-dollars-33-cents a barrel.

# And finally, the closing ceremony of the Olympic Games in Paris had everything, including Tom Cruise wowing the audience with a few epic stunts. The Mission: Impossible star, dressed in a leather jacket and gloves, abseiled off the Stade de France’s roof. Billie Eilish, Snoop Dogg and the Red Hot Chili Peppers performed and H.E.R. sang the US national anthem, to mark the handover to Los Angeles, which will host the Olympics in 2028. The ceremony was orchestrated by artistic director Thomas Jolly and executive director Thierry Reboul.

Stay tuned for more news………….