News 14:00

BULLETIN 22 October 2 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# A Soweto teacher accused of raping a nine-year-old hands himself over to police
# A major cybersecurity threat prompts governments and companies to protect their websites
# And tennis: The field for the WTA Finals is confirmed after Muchova seals the final spot

# A teacher accused of raping a nine-year-old learner at Busisiwe Primary School in Zola, Soweto, has handed himself over to police. Gauteng police have confirmed he will be charged with rape. The teacher was placed on precautionary suspension yesterday after the allegations prompted protests by parents and residents. Education MEC Lebogang Maile visited the school and said psychosocial support was being provided to the child and her family, saying the allegations have not yet been tested in court.

Meanwhile, Action Society warns allocations in the mini-budget risk being lip service unless government publishes a costed implementation plan related to gender-based violence and femicide. Minister of Finance Enoch Godongwana committed an additional 5.1-billion-rand to combat the scourge. Action Society’s Juanita du Preez says while 186-million-rand is allocated for forensic and investigative capacity, there is no explanation of how much will reach specialist police units and forensic laboratories:

# President Cyril Ramaphosa has called for urgent action to remove barriers contributing to youth unemployment. He was speaking at a youth employment conference in Sandton, Johannesburg. Ramaphosa says many young people remain jobless despite completing their studies and applying for work. He also highlights challenges facing young entrepreneurs who lack funding and business networks. Ramaphosa says government and other stakeholders must work together to create employment opportunities for the youth:

Moving abroad:

# Governments and some of the world’s biggest companies are rushing to protect their systems after a major cybersecurity threat. At the centre of the threat are vulnerabilities involving a programming language used by millions of websites, PHP. The FBI and National Security Agency warned hackers could exploit the cybersecurity flaws to take control of websites and potentially compromise sensitive information. Government websites in the US, UK, Finland and the Netherlands were affected, as were companies including Amazon and Wikipedia.

# Tennis: The field for next month’s WTA Finals in Indian Wells in the US has been confirmed after Czech player Karolina Muchova secured the eighth and final spot. She achieved this when Ukrainian Marta Kostyuk was forced to retire in the second round of the Ningbo Open in China. Muchova joins Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan, Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus, Russian Mirra Andreeva, another Czech, Linda Noskova, Americans Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula, and Ukrainian Elina Svitolina. The finals start on the seventh of November.

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 16-rand-49-cents and the euro at 18-rand-50-cents. One British pound costs 22-rand-7-cents and Bitcoin trades at 81-thousand-960-dollars. Gold sells at four-thousand-and-85-dollars-70-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 113-dollars-16-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….