News 12:00

BULLETIN 4 October 12 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# Cosatu says the government needs to honour its promise on the fuel price review
# ActionSA welcomes the sentencing of the former Steinhoff chief financial officer
# And Motorsport: Brad Binder clocks the fastest time in practice for the Japanese MotoGP

# Cosatu says government needs to honour its commitments to review the fuel price formula, as well as the current basket of goods exempt from value-added-tax. In July, president Cyril Ramaphosa committed that the government of national unity would launch a fuel price review. Cosatu’s, Matthew Parks, says this task is drastically becoming more urgent with Israel launching a war against Lebanon, which will likely see oil prices skyrocket once again:

# ActionSA welcomes the sentencing of former Steinhoff chief financial official, Andries la Grange. He was sentenced to an effective five years in prison after he entered a plea and sentence agreement with the state. It’s for one count of fraud of over 367-million-rand, emanating from the manipulation of financial statements and failure to report fraudulent activities. ActionSA’s Alan Beesley says they hope this will result in evidence that enables the successful prosecution of others involved in this grand heist:

# The Western Cape has suffered over 1.8-billion-rand in flood damage to its roads since June last year. Numerous roads within the province’s extensive 32-thousand-202 kilometre road network have been closed, necessitating the reallocation of resources to ensure that strategic routes remain safe and accessible. The DA’s Western Cape spokesperson on Infrastructure, Dirk Wessels, says this alarming figure underscores the profound impact of climate change on the design, construction, maintenance, and operation of road infrastructure.

# Motorsport: South Africa’s Brad Binder clocked the fastest time in practice for the Japanese MotoGP, with championship leader Jorge Martin finishing third. Red Bull KTM rider Binder laid down the fastest lap ahead of Spain’s six-time world champion Marc Marquez in second. Spaniard Martin holds a 21-point lead over nearest rival Francesco Bagnaia in the overall standings with five races remaining. Italy’s Bagnaia, the defending world champion, finished seventh fastest.

# The financial indicators: The dollar trades at 17-rand-47-cents and the euro at 19-rand-27-cents. One British pound costs 22-rand-98-cents and Bitcoin trades at 61-thousand-372-dollars-21-cents. Gold sells at two-thousand-661-dollars-11-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 78-dollars-28-cents a barrel.

# And finally: An unexploded American bomb from World War II exploded at the Miyazaki Airport in southwestern Japan, causing a large crater on a taxiway. No-one was injured but more than 80 flights were cancelled. Miyazaki Airport was built in 1943 as a flight training field from where some kamikaze pilots took off on suicide missions. A number of unexploded bombs dropped by the US military during the war have been unearthed in the area. Hundreds of unexploded bombs remain buried around Japan.

Stay tuned for more news………….