News 14:00

BULLETIN 6 June 2 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# The PSA is concerned that government and parastatals are paying millions of rands to ghost employees
# Gauteng Community Safety welcomes the crime drop but kidnappings remain a deep concern
# And tennis: Big guns are in action today in the men’s semifinals at the French Open

# The Public Servants Association says the lack of human resources control has turned lucrative for criminally minded people who are drawing salaries without being employed in government departments, state-owned enterprises and municipalities. The association’s spokesperson, Claude Naiker says all levels of government and parastatals are paying millions of rands to ghost employees. He says this raises further questions regarding the accuracy of the total number of employees as provided by these departments and organisations:

# The Gauteng Legislature’s Community Safety Committee has praised provincial law enforcement for a 7.9-percent drop in serious crimes from January to March 2025. According to the statistics, murder declined by 10.8-percent, with police actions like Operation Shanela yielding over 28-thousand arrests. However, the committee has expressed deep concern over two mass killings, the deaths of eleven police officers and one farm murder. It also highlighted an increase of 15.8-percent in kidnappings, prompting calls for urgent action.

# United Nations human rights chief, Volker Turk, has demanded the United States lift sanctions it imposed on four International Criminal Court judges, saying they were contrary to the rule of law. Judges Beti Hohler of Slovenia and Reine Alapini-Gansou of Benin took part in proceedings that led to an arrest warrant issued for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Judges Luz del Carmen Ibanez Carranza of Peru and Solomy Balungi Bossa of Uganda, were part of the proceedings authorising an investigation into allegations that US forces committed war crimes in Afghanistan.

# Tennis: It’s men’s semifinals day at the French Open in Paris. World number two and defending champion Carlos Alcaraz has been in devastating form and is the favourite to beat Italy’s eight seed Lorenzo Musetti in the first semifinal. In the other semifinal 38-year old Novak Djokovic plays in his 51ste Grand Slam semifinal against another Italian, world number one Jannik Sinner. Both Sinner and Alcaraz were born after 2000 and with seven major titles between them, they are now on a collision course in Paris.

# Financial indicators: The dollar trades at 17-rand-75-cents and the euro at 20-rand-27-cents. One British pound costs 24-rand-5-cents and Bitcoin trades at 103-thousand-666-dollars. Gold sells at three-thousand-357-dollars-99-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 65-dollars-18-cents a barrel.

# And finally, Roadrunning: National Police Commissioner, Fannie Masemola, has pledged his full support to the 437 police officers who will be participating in the Comrades Marathon on Sunday. The group includes 66 women and 371 men. More than 80 nations will be represented in the race, a down-run over approximately 89 kilometres from Pietermaritzburg to Durban. Police spokesperson, Nonkululeko Phokane, says SAPS is committed to health and wellness within its ranks:

Stay tuned for more news………….