News 13:00

BULLETIN 8 October 1 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# Ramaphosa will chair a new commission overseeing state firms
# A magnitude 5.7 earthquake strikes the Philippine island of Mindanao
# And soccer: Spain’s hero of the 2010 World Cup announces his retirement

# South Africa plans to establish a new commission, chaired by president Cyril Ramaphosa, to coordinate and oversee state-owned companies. Minister in the Presidency Gwen Ramokgopa says the commission will review the national strategy for state firms, strengthen governance and monitoring, and coordinate restructuring to improve efficiency. The move follows the withdrawal of legislation proposing a state-owned holding company by the Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation. Government says the commission could be established quickly. Reforms include guidelines on appointments, remuneration and restructuring.

# The chairperson of the inter-ministerial committee, Mmamoloko Kubayi, says government respects the Constitutional Court’s ruling on asylum applications, but is concerned about unintended consequences. She addressed the media following the committee’s meeting. Kubayi says the judgment does not legalise unlawful migration or automatically grant refugee status or permanent residence. Instead, asylum seekers must have access to the formal determination process. Kubayi says fraudulent or unfounded claims can still be rejected:

# Agricultural organisation TLU SA says it’s time for farm attacks and murders to receive the political and security priority warranted by their scale and persistent nature. This follows the recent murder of 55-year-old Hannetjie van Zyl at her Doornpan farm in North West. TLU SA’s Bennie van Zyl says 26 farm attacks and three farm murders were recorded in August, followed by 17 attacks last month:

Moving abroad:

# A magnitude 5.7 earthquake has struck the southern Philippine island of Mindanao. According to the German Research Centre for Geosciences, the quake occurred at a shallow depth of ten kilometres. The Philippines’ seismology agency, Phivolcs, says significant damage is not expected, but aftershocks are possible. Authorities are monitoring the situation for further seismic activity.

# Soccer: Spanish forward Pedro Rodrigues announced his retirement at the age of 39 after a career of 20-years which yielded 25 major trophies – including the World Cup in 2010. He was a key member of the country’s squad in South Africa 16 years ago and started in the final against the Netherlands. Rodrigues also helped his country to win Euro 2012. Reuters reports him saying he lived his dream and is proud of all the people who supported him to make it a reality.

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 16-rand-65-cents and the euro at 18-rand-63-cents. One British pound costs 21-rand-96-cents and Bitcoin trades at 82-thousand-998-dollars. Gold sells at four-thousand-124-dollars-19-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 107-dollars-20-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….