News 12:00

BULLETIN 4 April 12 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# The DA calls for the urgent election of a new speaker for the National Assembly
# City Power says 109 plants are out of service in Roodepoort 
# And soccer: A Kaizer Chiefs defender is killed during a hijacking

# The DA calls for the urgent election of a new speaker of the National Assembly following Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula’s resignation amid corruption allegations. Parliament has confirmed deputy speaker Lechesa Tsenoli will continue in his role as acting speaker until further notice. The DA’s chief whip, Siviwe Gwarube, says the Constitution and the rules of the National Assembly clearly state that once a vacancy has been created, an election must take place:

Meanwhile, Mapisa-Nqakula is reportedly set to appear in the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court later today. She arrived at the Lyttelton police station in Centurion earlier this morning, where she is believed to have handed herself over to police. She is accused of accepting millions of rand in bribes from a contractor during her time as minister of Defence and Military Veterans. Mapisa-Nqakula has maintained her innocence.   

# City Power in Johannesburg says they are currently prioritising voltage outages reported as well as plants that are out of service in Roodepoort. This is because the Alexandra Service Delivery Centre is sitting with 26 calls, four of which have been logged in the past 24 hours. City Power says operators will isolate the vandalised Italeni mini substation today, while tripped lines at Tshepisong Switching Station are being attended to. It adds that the power grid remains constrained.

# Soccer: Gauteng police have launched a manhunt following the murder of Kaizer Chiefs defender Luke Fleurs. The 24-year-old was shot and killed in a hijacking yesterday evening. Fleurs joined Chiefs as a free agent in October last year, having been released by SuperSport United in September. He played 70 times for SuperSport. Police spokesperson, Mavela Masondo, says a case of murder and car hijacking has been opened for investigation:

# The financial indicators: The dollar trades at 18-rand-60-cents and the euro at 20-rand-20-cents. One British pound costs 23-rand-55-cents and Bitcoin trades at 66-thousand-270-dollars-8-cents. Gold sells at two-thousand-292-dollars-86-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 89-dollars-8-cents a barrel.

# And finally: The ministerial task team on voluntary exit options and pathways from the captive lion industry, says industry associations have long called for better enforcement. South Africa has the largest number of captive lions in the world with about seven-thousand-800 in 348 breeding facilities. The ministerial task team’s Kam Chetty says captive lion breeders will be offered incentives to exit the industry:

Stay tuned for more news………….