News 12:00

BULLETIN 7 July 12 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# ActionSA escalates its Phala Phala evidence bid to the Information Regulator
# The 2021 death of the former top cop, Sindile Mfazi, is now being investigated as a murder
# And soccer: Spain beats Portugal and Belgium ousts America to make the World Cup quarterfinals

# ActionSA has approached the Information Regulator for documents linked to the Phala Phala scandal. It wants access to president Cyril Ramaphosa’s affidavit, and financial records tied to the alleged mastermind behind the 2020 burglary at his farm in Limpopo, Imanuwela David. ActionSA’s Michael Beaumont argues the documents could reveal discrepancies between the reported 8.7-million-rand stolen and evidence suggesting it was rather 15-million-rand. He also rallied support behind Parliament’s impeachment committee:

# Police have made a breakthrough in the investigation into the 2021 death of the former deputy national police commissioner for Crime Detection. Fifty-nine-year-old Sindile Mfazi’s death was initially attributed to Covid-19, but forensic tests later found traces of poison in his system. Police raided various properties belonging to police members in Centurion, Pretoria, last night. Spokesperson, Athlenda Mathe, says several high-profile individuals have been identified as persons of interest:

# Union federation Cosatu has welcomed the Department of Home Affairs’ plan to strengthen immigration enforcement capacity by recruiting an additional 301 immigration officials. The increase from 868 to one-thousand-169 officials will enhance enforcement capacity by 35-percent. Cosatu’s spokesperson, Matthew Parks, says this will be a positive boost to the department’s capacity and ease the badly overstretched staff:

# Soccer: 2010 champions Spain and Belgium will face off in the World Cup quarterfinals. Mikel Merino’s stoppage-time goal secured a 1-0 victory for Spain in their last 16-tie against Portugal in Dallas. The defeat has resulted in Roberto Martinez stepping down as Portugal’s head coach, while Cristiano Ronaldo revealed before the tournament this would mark his last World Cup. In Seattle, Belgium thrashed co-hosts USA 4-1 thanks to a brace from Charles de Ketelaere and goals by Hans Vanaken and Romelu Lukaku.

# The financial indicators: The dollar trades at 16-rand-23-cents and the euro at 18-rand-55-cents. One British pound costs 21-rand-73-cents and Bitcoin trades at 63-thousand-100-dollars. Gold sells at four-thousand-134-dollars-93-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 72-dollars-74-cents a barrel.

# And finally: Financial services company JustMoney urges South Africans to choose stokvels carefully as the country marks national savings month. The company states stokvels can be an effective way to build savings and good financial habits, provided they have clear governance, secure banking arrangements and affordable contribution requirements. JustMoney’s Sarah Nicholson also advised consumers to be alert to scams and to join stokvels that align with their personal savings goals and long-term financial wellbeing.

Stay tuned for more news………….