News 16:00

BULLETIN 13 November 4 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# A Hawks officer testifies about an alleged 250-thousand-rand bribe
# The Microsoft outage continues, disrupting South African businesses
# And cricket: The Proteas’ coach says they won’t underestimate Bangladesh

# A Hawks investigating officer has told the Madlanga Commission a Johannesburg metro police officer offered him a 250-thousand-rand bribe to make a theft case disappear. Warrant Officer Phuti Mashala says the case involves the alleged theft of 1.5-million-rand from businessman Nawazish Raja during a traffic stop in August 2023. He testified the bribe was first offered at a garage and again at the Brixton Flying Squad’s offices in Johannesburg. Mashala says the Hawks were investigating the alleged theft:

# The City of Tshwane says the implementation of level two water restrictions will result in higher tariffs for households that consume excessive water. This is intended to encourage responsible water consumption and discourage excessive use. For a household that consumes 43 to 60 kilolitres of water, bills can be expected to be 56.5-percent higher. The metro’s spokesperson, Lindela Mashigo, says properties valued at 250-thousand and below, as well as officially registered indigent customers, will receive the applicable network access charge exemption:

# Union federation SAFTU supports the Union Against Hunger’s condemnation of Shoprite’s excessive executive pay and its failure to put affordable, nutritious food within the reach of working-class and poor families. According to the UAH, Shoprite CEO Pieter Engelbrecht received 117.8-million-rand in the 2026 financial year, reportedly 35-percent higher than the previous year. SAFTU’s Asive Dyani says this is an indefensible sum in a country where millions go hungry, and Shoprite workers earn among the lowest wages:

# Thousands of South African users are still experiencing problems with Microsoft services following a global outage that began yesterday. Downdetector recorded more than 870 reports involving Microsoft 365 and 740 about Outlook before eight this morning. The disruption affects email, calendars and some workplace tools, although basic Teams calls and messages are still working. Microsoft says it is moving traffic to alternative systems and restarting affected servers, but recovery remains uneven. The company has not yet confirmed when all services will be restored.

# Cricket: Proteas coach Shukri Conrad says they won’t underestimate Bangladesh in the two-match Test series, despite South Africa currently second in the World Test Championship standings and the Asian country fifth. The Proteas improved their standing with the recent series victory over Australia, but Bangladesh beat Australia, New Zealand, the West Indies and Pakistan in recent years. The series will be followed by three one-day matches and three T20s. The first Test starts at the Wanderers on Sunday, and the second in Centurion on the 23rd.

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 16-rand-95-cents and the euro at 18-rand-72-cents. One British pound costs 22-rand-41-cents and Bitcoin trades at 69-thousand-174-dollars. Gold sells at three-thousand-894-dollars-11-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 98-dollars-53-sents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….