News 14:00

BULLETIN 26 January 1 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# Bail is denied for the accused in the DJ Warras murder case
# Ramaphosa says South Africa needs to sharpen its competitiveness and expand its markets
# And tennis: Sinner easily despatches Darderi to reach the quarterfinals in Melbourne

# The accused in the murder of media personality Warrick “DJ Warras” Stock, Victor Majola, has been denied bail by the Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court. Majola faces charges of premeditated murder and conspiracy after Stock was fatally shot near the Carlton Centre on 16 December. The magistrate cited his lack of a fixed address, conflicting alibi, and unreliable video evidence in rejecting bail. The case has been postponed to 11 February for further investigations.

# President Cyril Ramaphosa says South Africa needs to sharpen its competitiveness and expand markets, particularly in Africa. Global growth is expected to remain subdued over the medium term, and many countries are facing heightened trade and geopolitical tensions. In his weekly newsletter, Ramaphosa says the Presidential Economic Advisory Council has called on government to boost public infrastructure spending and lower the cost of doing business. He adds increasing infrastructure investment is not simply about spending more, but about delivering projects that create jobs.

# The DA in Tshwane says it will engage a tracing agent to locate controversial tenderpreneur, Edwin Sodi, and provide the information to the metro and National Treasury. A report by the metro’s supply chain management division, dated September last year, revealed that repeated attempts to serve letters informing Sodi and his associates of an intended blacklisting were unsuccessful. DA Tshwane caucus leader Cilliers Brink says the ANC-led coalition has run out of excuses:

# Tennis: Defending champion Jannik Sinner easily defeated his Italian counterpart Luciano Darderi to reach the quarterfinal of the Australian Open. Darderi fought back in the third set, but the world number two weathered the storm to take it in the tiebreak and win in straight sets. Sinner next plays eight-seeded American Ben Shelton or Norwegian Casper Ruud. Top-seeded Carlos Alcaraz of Spain, local player Alex de Minaur, Italian Lorenzo Musetti, Novak Djokovic of Serbia, German Alexander Zverev and American Learner Tien are also through to the quarterfinals.

# The financial indicators: The dollar trades at 16-rand-2-cents and the euro at 19-rand. One British pound costs 21-rand-90-cents and Bitcoin trades at 87-thousand-755-dollars. Gold sells at five-thousand-and-87-dollars-21-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 65-dollars-22-cents a barrel.

# And finally: The Department of Health, in partnership with the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research,  is hosting a three-day Digital Health Interoperability Projectathon in Pretoria from today until Wednesday. The department’s spokesperson, Foster Mohale, says this forms part of ongoing efforts to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of digital health platforms to create a resilient and equitable healthcare system that can deliver health for all:

Stay tuned for more news………….