News 12:00

BULLETIN 13 March 12 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# West Coast community protests outside the court as the accused linked to Joslin Smith’s disappearance return
# Tropical storm Filipo makes landfall in KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo and Mpumalanga
# And cricket: The shocking state of the Pietermaritzburg Oval leads to the moving of a match 

# Community members from Saldanha Bay on the West Coast have been gathering outside the Vredenburg Magistrate’s Court since early, as four people linked to the disappearance of six-year-old Joslin Smith return to court. Police presence is heightened with a barbed wire barricade as tensions rise among protesters demanding answers about the child’s whereabouts since she disappeared on February 19. Among the accused are Joslin’s mother, Kelly Smith, and her boyfriend, Jacquin Appollis, facing charges of trafficking for exploitation and abduction.

# Communities in KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo, and Mpumalanga have been warned to be extra vigilant as tropical storm Filipo makes landfall. The storm has already caused damage to buildings in the southern parts of Mozambique. The Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs’ spokesperson, Legadima Leso, says minister Thembi Nkadimeng has directed the National Disaster Management Centre to work with all stakeholders to ensure the safety of communities that might be impacted by the storm:

# AfriForum’s division for Community Safety has released an assessment document that churches can use as a guideline in tightening their security. This comes amid a rise in criminal activity recorded at churches, especially in Gauteng, where phones and money have been robbed from congregants, with some cases ending in assault, kidnapping, and murder. AfriForum’s Jacques Broodryk says the assessment offers guidelines so that churches can be prepared for burglaries, armed robbery, vehicle theft, and arson:

# US president Joe Biden and his predecessor, Donald Trump, will again face off against each other in November’s elections. This follows after they both won their parties’ presidential primaries in Georgia, Mississippi and Washington, securing the delegate thresholds to clinch the nominations. Biden says he is honoured that voters have backed his re-election bid in a moment when the threat Trump poses is greater than ever:

# Cricket South Africa promised to sought alternative venues after a CSA T20 match had to be moved from the Pietermaritzburg Oval in KwaZulu-Natal due to the shocking state of the outfield. The stadion was apparently not cleaned since it hosted premier Nomusa Dube-Ncube’s state of the province address two weeks ago, and bits of glass were still strewn across the grass. TimesLIVE reports visiting teams had complained about the state of the stadium earlier. The stadium is the home of KwaZulu-Natal Inland in the competition.

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 18-rand-70-cents and the euro at 20-rand-44-cents. One British pound costs 23-rand-93-cents and Bitcoin trades at 73-thousand-484-dollars-46-cents. Gold sells at two-thousand-159-dollars-19-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 82-dollars-2-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….