News 14:00

BULLETIN 16 Oktober 2 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# Minister Cachalia welcomes Fannie Masemola’s return as national police commissioner
# The City of Tshwane is investigating a diarrhoea outbreak in Bronkhorstspruit
# And tennis: A Serbian player is handed a 24-year ban for match-fixing

# Acting Police minister Firoz Cachalia has welcomed the lifting of the precautionary suspension of national police commissioner Fannie Masemola following the formal withdrawal of charges against him. Cachalia thanked Puleng Dimpane for her leadership as acting commissioner. The ministry’s spokesperson, Kamogelo Mogotsi, says Masemola’s return on Monday will help maintain operational focus and advance the Police Reset Agenda, which aims to strengthen professionalism, accountability and public trust:

Parliament’s portfolio committee on Police meanwhile calls for urgent corrective action to address the persistent weaknesses in criminal investigations, forensic services, police accountability and financial management. According to its annual report, police only achieved 49 of its 94 annual targets, with its detective services programming meeting only nine of its 22 targets. Committee chairperson Ian Cameron says if the shortcomings are left unaddressed, they will continue to delay justice and weaken public confidence in law enforcement:

# The City of Tshwane is investigating between 140 and 160 reported cases of diarrhoea and other gastro-intestinal illnesses in Bronkhorstspruit and surrounding areas. Most patients were treated at Bronkhorstspruit Hospital, while additional cases were reported at Mamelodi Hospital, Steve Biko Academic Hospital and Wilgers Hospital. Mayoral spokesperson Samkelo Mgobozi says investigations are ongoing and no link to the water supply has been confirmed as yet:

Moving abroad:

# An order to restrict Ukraine’s access to a military satellite system reportedly came from inside the White House. Ukrainian battlefield operations and drones are supported by SpaceX’s military-grade satellite service, Starshield. The Pentagon is its biggest customer but according to officials the restrictions were not requested by US president Donald Trump. Reuters cites US and Western officials saying the restrictions disrupted Ukrainian strike missions and slowed drones used to intercept Russian attacks. The move comes amid tensions between Washington and Kyiv over Ukrainian strikes on Russian oil refineries.

# Tennis: Serbian Stefan Milicevic has received a 24-year ban after an investigation found he fixed six matches and attempted to fix six more between 2022 and 2024. The International Tennis Integrity Agency says the 29-year-old was also charged with recruiting or attempting to recruit multiple professional players, as part of a corrupt network, resulting in a number of other players fixing matches. Milicevic, whose highest ATP ranking was one-thousand-338, has been fined over one-million-rand. He will not be able to play competitive tennis again until 2050.

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 16-rand-41-cents and the euro at 18-rand-49-cents. One British pound costs 21-rand-89-cents and Bitcoin trades at 81-thousand-921-dollars. Gold sells at four-thousand-184-dollars-42-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 107-dollars-75-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….