News 12:00

BULLETIN 25 March 12 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# Parliament’s Ad Hoc Committee discuss the way forward following the completion of the Mkhwanazi probe
# COPE hails the arrest of 12 SAPS officers in a 360-million-rand tender scandal
# And golf: Tiger Woods is still unsure about his participation at the Masters

# Parliament’s Ad Hoc Committee investigating allegations by KwaZulu-Natal Police Commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi is meeting today to discuss correspondence and the way forward. The session focuses on administrative preparations and timelines for upcoming proceedings. Established in July 2025, the committee is probing claims of criminal syndicates within state institutions, alleged interference in investigations, corruption, and the effectiveness of police oversight mechanisms, amid concerns of state capture within law enforcement agencies.

# The Congress of the People welcomes the arrest of 12 senior South African Police Service officers over their alleged role in a 360-million-rand Medicare24 tender scandal linked to businessman Vusimuzi Matlala. Cope’s Pakes Dikgetsi says accused officers reportedly received bribes, including luxury vehicles and other perks. Dikgetsi condemns the betrayal of public trust, urging the national commissioner to suspend all implicated officers without pay and root out corruption within SAPS:

# The Supreme Court of Appeal has ordered the Road Accident Fund to pay Sunshine Hospital more than 92-million-rand within seven days. The private hospital in Benoni began treating motor vehicle accident victims in 2003 at the RAF’s request. Sunshine Hospital closed permanently in May last year, following a five-year legal battle over sustained non-payment by the fund. The SCA has also ordered RAF to provide an updated ‘requested not yet paid’ claims list, which are invoices that have already been audited and approved by the fund.

# German president Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Foreign minister Johann Wadephul have criticised the US-Israeli attacks on Iran, calling them avoidable and unnecessary. Speaking at an event in Berlin marking the 75th anniversary of the post-war reformation of the German Foreign Ministry in 1951, Steinmeier called the war a politically fateful mistake that constituted a breach of international law. In his address, Wadephul said that although the US played a major role in the reunification of Germany after World War Two, he warned of new challenges amid the increasingly erratic foreign policy of president Donald Trump’s second term. 

# Golf: Fifteen-time major champion, Tiger Woods, says he is still unsure whether he will play at this year’s Masters in Augusta. The 50-year-old has spent a year rehabbing from a ruptured Achilles’ tendon and undergoing a seventh back surgery in October last year. The five-time Masters champion has not played a competitive round of golf on the PGA Tour since missing the cut at The Open in July 2024. Woods says he will continue to practise and see how it goes:

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 16-rand-85-cents and the euro at 19-rand-57-cents. One British pound costs 22-rand-61-cents and Bitcoin trades at 71-thousand-166-dollars. Gold sells at four-thousand-564-dollars-31-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 94-dollars-76-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….