News 14:00

BULLETIN 28 August 2 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# The Referendum Party says Malema has been allowed to issue threats of violence against minorities for too long
# The National Student Financial Aid Scheme loan recovery efforts are reinforced with authorised debt collectors
# And tennis: Daniil Medvedev receives a hefty fine for his meltdown in the US Open’s first round

# The Referendum Party has welcomed the Equality Court’s ruling finding EFF leader Julius Malema guilty of hate speech, and called for sanctions to be pursued to the fullest extent of the law. The Referendum Party’s Robert King says for too long Malema has been allowed to issue threats of violence and racist tirades against minorities, particularly white and Indian communities, with near total impunity:

# The National Student Financial Aid Scheme is stepping up efforts to recover student loans, focusing on borrowers who received funding before 2018. Those earning above 30-thousand-rand a year must start repayments, with accounts possibly handed to authorised external debt collectors if overdue. NSFAS acting CEO Waseem Carrim confirmed five authorised debt collection agencies:

Moving abroad:

# Mexican senators came to blows after a heated debate over alleged opposition calls for the United States to intervene militarily against drug cartels. Leader of the opposition PRI party, Alejandro Moreno, angrily confronted Senate president Gerardo Fernandez Norona, of the ruling Morena party, for not being given the floor. Moreno can be seen in a video posted on social media by Mexico’s Senate pushing Fernandez Norona several times, slapping him on the neck and pushing another man to the ground when he tried to intervene.

# Tennis: Russia’s Daniil Medvedev has been fined 750-thousand-rand by the US Open for his meltdown during his first-round loss to France’s Benjamin Bonzi. The 2021 champion got angry when a photographer wandered onto the court while he was facing match point in the third set. He then smashed his racket at the end of the match. Medvedev has been fined 530-thousand-rand for unsportsmanlike conduct and another 220-thousand-rand for racket abuse. This means he forfeits almost 40-percent of his first-round prize money.

# The financial indicators: The dollar trades at 17-rand-67-cents and the euro at 20-rand-61-cents. One British pound costs 23-rand-89-cents and Bitcoin trades at 112-thousand-912-dollars. Gold sells at three-thousand-396-dollars-73-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 67-dollars-16-cents a barrel.

# And finally: Stellenbosch University is mourning the death of renowned botanist and curator of the university’s botanical garden, Donovan Kirkwood. He died after a fall in the Jonkershoek mountains during a conservation trip. Kirkwood was surveying critically endangered plant species with CapeNature and Cambridge University officials, working to save the critically endangered Penaea formosa plant. The university described him as a devoted botanist and visionary who transformed the garden into a hub for conserving rare Cape flora.

Stay tuned for more news………….