News 14:00

BULLETIN 6 May 2 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# The DA defends the constitutionality of the healthcare governance model at the Constitutional Court
# Fikile Mbalula accepts the activist Anele Mda’s apology over Bozwana’s murder accusations
# And Standard Bank reaches a milestone of 50 smart ID branches in partnership with Home Affairs

# The DA in the Western Cape is before the Constitutional Court, arguing healthcare reform must be driven by good governance rather than centralised control. The party’s Geordin Hill-Lewis contends public participation in lawmaking must be meaningful and the National Health Insurance model risks over-centralising power. He says healthcare improvement depends on accountability, efficient management, and fixing existing public health system failures rather than expanding state control:

# ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula has accepted an apology from activist Anele Mda after the High Court in Pretoria dismissed her application to appeal a defamation ruling. The court found Mda’s social media posts linking Mbalula to the murder of North West businessman Wandile Bozwana were defamatory and unproven. The tender tycoon died in hospital after he and his business associate, Betty Baloyi, were shot on the N1 highway in Pretoria in 2015. Mda has retracted her statements. Mbalula stresses the importance of protecting reputations against false allegations.

# Public Works and Infrastructure minister Dean Macpherson has called on the National Prosecuting Authority to act after police completed their investigation into the George building collapse. The disaster killed 34 people and injured 28 others. Marking the second anniversary, Macpherson says the tragedy remains a painful reminder of the need for accountability in the built environment. He stresses justice for victims and their families cannot be delayed:

# Rugby: The Rugby Football Union has backed England’s head coach, Steve Borthwick, to remain in charge through to next year’s World Cup in Australia. This follows a review conducted into this year’s Six Nations, in which England suffered four defeats from five to finish fifth on the table, losing to Italy for the first time. The review included interviews with players, coaches and external independent contributors. RFU CEO Bill Sweeney says Borthwick has clear plans in place to address the challenges highlighted in the review.

# The financial indicators: The dollar trades at 16-rand-37-cents and the euro at 19-rand-26-cents. One British pound costs 22-rand-29-cents and Bitcoin trades at 82-thousand-126-dollars. Gold sells at four-thousand-699-dollars-99-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 99-dollars-22-cents a barrel.

# And finally: Standard Bank says it has reached a milestone of 50 bank-assisted smart ID processing branches in partnership with the Department of Home Affairs. Spokesperson Kabelo Makeke says the bank completed more than five-thousand applications, with most cards already collected and an average processing time of under two weeks. He says they plan to expand to 112 branches by the end of this year to improve access to services nationwide.

Stay tuned for more news………….