News 15:00

BULLETIN 3 October 3 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# The Constitutional Court rules the age cap for adoption leave is unconstitutional
# SASSA confirms the old age grant payment glitches are resolved for 15-thousand beneficiaries
# And Soccer: Liverpool’s goalkeeper Alisson Becker is ruled out until after the international break

# The Constitutional Court has ruled that limiting parental leave for adoptive parents of children aged two-years or older is unconstitutional. Justice Laura Lumka Tshiqi ruled such provisions unfairly discriminate against adoptive parents and their children, denying them crucial bonding time. She confirmed previous findings that various sections of the Basic Conditions of Employment Act , and corresponding Unemployment Insurance Fund sections, must be amended. Parliament has 36-months to remedy the defects:

# The South African Social Security Agency says issues affecting old age grant payments have been resolved. Around 15-thousand beneficiaries did not receive their grants yesterday due to a technical fault between Capitec and the payments clearing house, PayInc. The outstanding payments will be made today. SASSA spokesperson Andile Tshona says measures are being put in place to prevent a repeat of the incident:

# The General Industries Workers Union, GIWUSA, is calling on all trade union federations and justice-loving people to unite for a National Day of Action. GIWUSA president, Mametlwe Sebei, says the action day is to put pressure on government to immediately terminate all trade deals with Israel and implement a comprehensive embargo on all coal exports. He says South Africa natural resources must not fuel genocide:

# A general strike in Italy in support of the Gaza aid flotilla disrupted trains and threatened more commuter chaos today in a second day of demonstrations in Rome. The strike follows demonstrations yesterday in several cities across the world, including in Milan and Rome, where some ten-thousand people marched from the Colosseum. Protesters began to amass again this morning in Rome to march to the vast plaza outside the central train station of Termini, where services were cancelled or delayed for up to 80 minutes.

# Soccer: Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson Becker has been ruled out until after this month’s international break, giving Arne Slot a major headache as he seeks to end his team’s mini-slump. The Reds have suffered consecutive defeats to Crystal Palace in the Premier League and Galatasaray in the Champions League after starting the season with seven straight wins. Alisson was replaced by Giorgi Mamardashvili in the 56th minute of Tuesday’s game after hurting his hamstring. Slot confirmed his number one goalkeeper will not be fit to face Chelsea this weekend.

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 17-rand-23-cents and the euro at 20-rand-23-cents. One British pound costs 23-rand-18-cents and Bitcoin trades at 120-thousand-374-dollars. Gold sells at three-thousand-862-dollars-99-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 64-dollars-41-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….