News 13:00

BULLETIN 19 January 1pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# Eleven learners die on their way to school in Vanderbijl Park
# The Kruger National Park launches a relief fund after the flood damage
# And tennis: Former champion Stan Wawrinka reaches the second round in Melbourne

# Eleven learners have been confirmed dead and five others are in critical condition following an accident in Vanderbijl Park, Gauteng, this morning. The provincial Education Department’s preliminary reports indicate a side tipper truck rammed into a learner transport vehicle. The scene remains active as emergency medical services are currently combing the scene providing urgent medical care. Investigations into the cause of the crash are ongoing.

# Kruger National Park has launched a relief fund to help rebuild infrastructure damaged by heavy rainfall. According to the minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, Willie Aucamp, the fund will be managed by an independent auditor, and appealed to corporate entities to contribute. Aucamp also praised park management for the safe evacuation of guests and staff, noting no lives were lost.

# Firefighters in the Cape Winelands Municipality have made good progress on the fire at La Motte in Franschhoek. The blaze started on Saturday afternoon, when multiple structures were under threat. The municipality’s spokesperson, Anesca Roodt, says firefighting efforts were mainly focused on structure protection:

# Eskom says two-thousand-and-70-megawatts of generation capacity will be returned to service ahead of the evening peak today to maintain a stable electricity supply throughtout the week. Spokesperson Daphne Mokwena says planned maintenance was at an average of five-thousand-362-megawatts, accounting for 11.4-percent of total generation capacity. She says this is slightly more than last week’s 11.34-percent and lower than the 12.37-percent over the same period last year:

# Tennis: Swiss veteran Stanislas Warwinka turned back the clock when he defeated Serbia’s Laslo Djere in the first round of the Australian Open – exactly 20-years after making his debut. The 40-year-old former world number three won in four sets in front of a noisy crowd who celebrated his victory as if he had won the tournament. The champion of 2014 received a wild card to participate in Melbourne. Wawrinka’s other two Grand Slam titles came at the French Open in 2015, and the US Open the next year.

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 16-rand-46-cents and the euro at 19-rand-12-cents. One British pound costs 22-rand-4-cents and Bitcoin trades at 93-thousand-39-dollars. Gold sells at four-thousand-670-dollars-33-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 62-dollars-93-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….