News 12:00

BULLETIN 15 March 12 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# A murder-accused surgeon denies performing unnecessary operations to make up lost money 
# Saftu says increasing the social relief grant by 20-rand is a mockery to the recipients
# And rugby: Fabien Galthie keeps the French team unchanged for the England clash 

# A Gauteng paediatric surgeon accused of causing the death of three patients by performing unnecessary operations, denied he did the surgery to make up for money he lost in a tanked investment. Peter Beale is testifying in the High Court in Johannesburg, where he faces three charges of murder and two of fraud. He admits he lost 1.5-million-rand when the Tannenbaum ponzi scheme crashed in 2009, but says he was earning between four- and five-million-rand annually and the loss didn’t affect his financial standing.

# Union federation Saftu says it’s extremely disappointed that president Cyril Ramaphosa and other government leaders made empty promises that the social relief grant will be used as the basis to introduce a basic income grant. It says government has chosen fiscal consolidation by increasing the grant by a mere 20-rand. This means this was adjusted to a paltry and tokenish 370-rand. Saftu’s spokesperson, Trevor Shaku, says it’s a mockery to the recipients of the grants who are the overwhelming poor.

# Home Affairs minister Aaron Motsoaledi and his Lesotho counterpart, Lebona Lephema, have signed a landmark memorandum agreement at Maseru Bridge. Motsoaledi revealed the agreement extends the visa-free stay in South Africa for Basotho nationals from 30 to 90 days. He says this follows the South Africa-Lesotho bi-national commission held in Pretoria last September, where key agreements were discussed and ratified:

# Rugby: France will face England in their last-round Six Nations match in Lyon with a team unchanged from the one that beat Wales 45-24 last weekend. This means usual fullback Thomas Ramos remains in the number ten jersey following injuries to Matthieu Jalibert and Romain Ntamack. Head coach Fabien Galthie has again chosen six forwards and two back players on the bench in order to counter England’s expected physical threat. England is currently second on the log, four points behind Ireland, with France in fourth place.

# The financial indicators: The dollar trades at 18-rand-75-cents and the euro at 20-rand-41-cents. One British pound costs 23-rand-90-cents and Bitcoin trades at 67-thousand-731-dollars-9-cents. Gold sells at two-thousand-165-dollars-93-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 84-dollars-89-cents a barrel.

# And finally: The National Research Foundation says the new South African isotope facility is a game-changer in the country’s efforts to increase the production of life-saving nuclear medicine, as well as increasing pertinent research and training. The facility is based at the iThemba Laboratory for Accelerator-Based Sciences in Cape Town. The foundation’s CEO, Fulufhelo Nelwamondo, says it will enable South Africa to extend research into the sub-atomic physics and disciplines, including space science, nanoscience and other technology:

Stay tuned for more news………….