News 13:00

BULLETIN 23 July

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# The Engineering Council sanctions an engineer over the George building collapse
# The first group of teens stranded in Europe arrive back in Cape Town today
# And rugby: A strong Springbok squad of 37 players will face Australia in the Rugby Championship

# The Engineering Council of South Africa has formally charged and permanently deregistered an engineer linked to the fatal building collapse in George in the Western Cape in May last year. The tragedy claimed 34 lives and injured many more. The council’s disciplinary tribunal found the engineer guilty on five counts of professional misconduct and imposed the maximum sanction. The findings have also been referred to police for criminal investigation. The council reaffirmed its commitment to public safety and engineering accountability.

# The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse urges new Higher Education and Training minister Buti Manamela to urgently tackle corruption and mismanagement within the Sector Education and Training Authorities. The organisation fears Manamela’s long history in the department won’t bring real change. OUTA’s Stefanie Fick says billions of rand are lost each year due to ongoing mismanagement, with executives linked to corruption still holding their positions despite years of adverse findings:

# The Gauteng Health Department is undertaking a massive project to digitise 800-million pages of patient records across its 37 public hospitals. This project started at the Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital in Soweto, where 800-thousand patient files have so far been digitised. Health MEC Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko says this forms part of a bold transformation drive to improve efficiency, patient care and system accountability at public hospitals:

# The first group of Cape Town teenagers stranded in Spain after participating in the prestigious Donosti Cup soccer tournament will arrive back in South Africa this afternoon. The BT Soccer Academy players successfully competed in the competition, but flights home could not be paid for from the package pricing. Through interventions from the Western Cape government and donations from South Africans, the money for the plane tickets was raised. The stranded group, which includes 25 children between the ages of 13 and 18 years old, and three coaches, will fly from Portugal to South Africa.

# Rugby: Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus selected a strong 37-player squad for the first two Rugby Championship Tests against Australia, featuring 24 World Cup-winners and five players who made their Test debuts recently. They are Ethan Hooker, Asenathi Ntlabakanye, Boan Venter, Marnus van der Merwe and Cobus Wiese. The standby players are Lukhanyo Am, Faf de Klerk, Makazole Mapimpi, Salmaan Moerat, Evan Roos, Neethling Fouché and Vincent Tshituka. The Springboks face the Wallabies in Johannesburg on 16 August, and a week later in Cape Town.

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 17-rand-53-cents and the euro at 20-rand-57-cents. One British pound costs 23-rand-74-cents and Bitcoin trades at 118-thousand-175-dollars. Gold sells at three-thousand-431-dollars-45-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 67-dollars-67-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….