News 17:00

BULLETIN 22 April 5 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# A power outage hits five health facilities, including three major hospitals in Johannesburg 
# The ANC stands firm on intellectual property rights but is not opposed to Zuma’s party
# And rugby: The Boks’ end of year tour dates are confirmed 

# A power outage in the Johannesburg CBD has affected major hospitals – Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital, Nelson Mandela Children’s Hospital, Parklane Hospital, Brenthurst Clinic, and Rand Clinic. Customers in Berea, Hillbrow, Parktown, and surrounding areas have also been impacted. City Power attributes the outage to a burnt feeder-board at the Ridge substation. Meanwhile, thousands of residents in the east of the Tshwane metro have been without power since a fire at Mooikloof substation last Wednesday. The city aims to restore power by Wednesday evening.

# ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula says the party believes in free and fair elections and is not opposed to the presence of former president Jacob Zuma’s MK Party on the ballot. At a media briefing, Mbalula indicated the ruling party intends to appeal a judgment by the High Court in Durban allowing the MK Party to use the name and logo. He says the ANC welcomes new formations, but will not tolerate the appropriation of its assets:

# A French parliamentary commission began examining a controversial right-to-die bill, to be submitted to the full National Assembly next month. The initiative has the backing of president Emmanuel Macron. He insists any authorisation to choose death should be limited to people with incurable illnesses and intense physical or psychological pain. The bill is widely referred to as focusing on “end of life” or “aid in dying” in the French debate, rather than “assisted suicide” or “euthanasia”.

# Rugby: The Springboks will line up against World Cup opponents, Scotland and England, before taking on Wales at their end of year tour in November, with the last Tests confirmed today. They kick off the tour on Sunday, 10 November in Edinburgh against sixth-ranked Scotland. Six days later they take on World Cup semi-finalists England, currently ranked fifth in the world, at Twickenham in London. The tour ends against 10th ranked Wales in Cardiff a week later, on 23 November.

# The financial indicators: The dollar trades at 19-rand-18-cents and the euro at 20-rand-39-cents. One British pound costs 23-rand-60-cents and Bitcoin trades at 66-thousand-244-dollars-83-cents. Gold sells at two-thousand-340-dollars-14-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 85-dollars-93-cents a barrel.

# And finally: The African Children’s Summit, endorsed by the United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of the Child, will convene in Johannesburg in August. The three-day event will host 500 children, both physically and virtually, to address social challenges. Last year’s summit in Nairobi paved the way for this Pan African conference, focusing on children’s rights and social security. Social Development deputy minister Hendrietta Bogopane-Zulu underscores the summit’s empowerment goal towards children with disabilities:

Stay tuned for more news………….