News 15:00

BULLETIN 28 May 3 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# AfriForum loses its case against Julius Malema about Kill the Boer 
# The Electoral Commission creates over 300-thousand temporary jobs for the elections 
# And rugby: The Junior Boks are in the same pool as England, Argentina and Fiji for the World Rugby Under-20 Championship

# The Supreme Court of Appeal dismissed with costs AfriForum’s case about the singing of Kill the Boer against EFF leader Julius Malema. The court ruled Malema was doing no more than exercising his right to freedom of expression, which is protected by the Constitution, in the course of participating in the activities of, and campaigning for the political party of which he is leader. AfriForum wanted the court to prohibit the singing of the song as they regard it as hate speech against white Afrikaners.

# The Electoral Commission has announced the creation of over 300-thousand temporary jobs for this week’s elections, up from 200-thousand in the previous elections. Deputy chief electoral official for Corporate Services, Akhtari Henning, attributes the increase to additional ballots and higher voter numbers. The new cohort of counting officials has been deployed to over 23-thousand voting stations across South Africa. The IEC launched its recruitment through an online portal in May last year, benefiting young people from all nine provinces.

Meanwhile, Rise Mzansi is calling on government and law enforcement agencies to address the culture and drivers of violence and crime in the country during the elections. The party’s Lihle Nyikana says roads were blockaded in the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal in elections week. There are several issues at play in Mthatha. Nyikana says if government fails to address the crisis, it will be disputed that the elections were free and fair:

# Cosatu has congratulated Eskom and municipalities and their employees for the impressive improvement in Eskom’s energy availability factor. It has for the first time in more than three years exceeded 70-percent. Cosatu’s Matthew Parks says this significant improvement has seen the economy spared the effects of load-shedding for more than two months. He says this is the result of Eskom’s ramping up maintenance of its existing generation fleet and bringing on board new generation capacity:

# Rugby: The Junior Springboks will look to improve on their bronze medal from last year when the World Rugby Under20 Championship returns to South Africa next month. The Baby Boks are in Pool C with England, Argentina and Fiji. Pool A consists of last year’s champions, France, and Wales, New Zealand and Spain. Ireland, Australia, Georgia and Italy are in Pool B. The tournament will be played at the Danie Craven Stadium in Stellenbosch, the Athlone Stadium and the Cape Town Stadium.

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 18-rand-35-cents and the euro at 19-rand-98-cents. One British pound costs 23-rand-46-cents and Bitcoin trades at 68-thousand-546-dollars-4-cents. Gold sells at two-thousand-344-dollars-1-cent a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 82-dollars-94-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….