News 16:00

BULLETIN 4 June 4 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# Rise Mzansi says over 700-thousand South Africans are left in limbo as the ID printing machine breaks down again
# The Transport Department receives over 160 proposals for rail and port corridors
# And Rugby: Healy and Frizell add more international experience to the Barbarians squad

# Rise Mzansi says 733-thousand citizens have been left waiting for their driver’s licence cards as the only printing machine breaks down again. The machine has now been offline for 38 days, with Transport minister Barbara Creecy confirming the massive backlog in Parliament. The party’s Makashule Gana urges Creecy to urgently provide a public update on the promised procurement of new machines and the progress of a declaratory order that has delayed the process:

# The Department of Transport says it has received over 160 submissions following its recent call for private sector participation in rail and port infrastructure. The request for information, launched by minister Barbara Creecy in March, drew strong interest, especially in key export routes for minerals, containers, and vehicles. The department’s Collen Msibi says a new request about passenger rail is expected next month:

# A new report by Greenpeace Africa has revealed that air pollution killed 42-thousand South Africans in 2023, including over one-thousand-300 children under five. According to Greenpeace’s Cynthia Moyo, fine particle pollution, mainly from coal-burning industries, cost the country over 960-billion-rand. The hardest-hit regions are Gauteng, Mpumalanga, and the Highveld. Greenpeace is demanding urgent action including full enforcement of air quality laws, and a just shift to renewables. Moyo has also called for polluters to be held accountable as clean air is a right, not a privilege.

# Vietnamese police arrested administrators of a YouTube channel with two-million subscribers for allegedly spreading false information about state officials. Rights campaigners say the government in one-party Vietnam has in recent years stepped up a crackdown on civil society and weaponised the law to silence critics, especially people posting on social media. Human Rights Watch said in April that members of the public were being targeted through an expansion of the scope of an article of the penal code, which centres on the “infringement of state interests”.

# Rugby: Ireland’s Cian Healy and Shannon Frizell from New Zealand have been confirmed as the latest names to join the Barbarians when they lock horns against the Springboks in Cape Town at the end of the month. Healy and Frizell, who have 170 Test caps between them, will join Sam Cane, Peter O’Mahony and Conor Murray in Robbie Deans’ squad for the match on 28 June. The 37-year-old Healy is not only Ireland’s most capped player but Leinster’s too. He retired from international rugby after the Six Nations earlier this year.

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 17-rand-84-cents and the euro at 20-rand-34-cents. One British pound costs 24-rand-34-cents and Bitcoin trades at 105-thousand-25-dollars. Gold sells at three-thousand-346-dollars-52-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 65-dollars-26-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….