News 15:00

BULLETIN 11 November 3 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# The Activists and Citizens Forum says president Ramaphosa has failed to stop food poisoning in the country
# The Education and Transport Departments are looking for solutions for safe learner transport
# And rugby: The Boks expect a different Test against England altogether after beating Scotland

# The Activists and Citizens Forum wants president Cyril Ramaphosa to resign immediately as he has failed to come up with plans to stop food poisoning in the country. Gauteng alone has recorded over 400 cases with 23 deaths. The forum’s spokesperson, Dennis Bloem, says Ramaphosa and his government of national unity must take full responsibility for the deaths of all those children. He adds that the escalating situation reflects a broader concern over food safety:

Meanwhile, a labour lawyer, Michael Bagraim is calling on government to improve food safety measures in spaza shops. He says something needs to be done about health and safety within that large section of informal trading in South Africa:

# The Departments of Transport and of Basic Education are joining forces to explore ways of securing safe learner transport. As discussed during a recent briefing to Parliament’s select committee on Education, Sciences, and Creative Industries, government aims to eventually cover all learners under its subsidised transport system. According to the SABC, 667-thousand students use the National Learner Transport Programme, while 2.8-million rely on private learner transport. Committee chairperson Makhi Feni says strategies are needed to address the current shortfall in transport funding.

# The City of Cape Town says its rail feasibility study supports its plans to take control of the passenger rail services. The study, which began in 2022, proposes three ownership models for the ailing Prasa-run passenger rail service. The metro says while president Ramaphosa has delayed the process of devolving rail services to Cape Town, it is moving forward with plans to take over. It estimates that the total cost of its plan will be 123-billion-rand over the next 30 years.

# Rugby: The Springboks are relocating from Edinburgh to London today after last night’s victory over Scotland at Murrayfield. Bok coach Rassie Erasmus says Saturday’s clash with England at Twickenham will be a different Test altogether as they will face a desperate team coming off consecutive losses to the All Blacks and the Wallabies in matches they could have won. Australia handed England their fifth loss in six Tests and the English slumped to seventh in the lastest world rankings – their worst ranking in eight years.

# And the financial indicators:  The dollar trades at 17-rand-79-cents and the euro at 18-rand-97-cents. One British pound costs 22-rand-91-cents and Bitcoin trades at 82-thousand-44-dollars-60-cents. Gold sells at two-thousand-665-dollars-31-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 72-dollars-89-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….