News 17:00

BULLETIN 28 February 5 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# The national police headquarters is declared unfit for human use 
# Multi-Party Charter unveils plan to achieve energy security
# And Rugby: James Murphy joins the Blitzboks in Los Angeles

# The South African Police Service’s national head office in Pretoria was ordered to shut down immediately due to appalling conditions. Solidarity’s Occupational Health and Safety Division and the Department of Labour inspected the building following complaints, and found it lacks basic amenities and poses health risks. It was bought and renovated eight years ago for nearly 900-million-rand. Solidarity deputy general secretary of the Public Industry, Helgard Cronjé, says police must wait for safety inspections before reopening. 

# The Multi-Party Charter for South Africa has announced a bold initiative to eradicate load-shedding and promote sustainable energy development. Eleven parties collaborated on a plan aimed at dismantling Eskom’s monopoly, fostering private power generation, and establishing a competitive electricity market. DA leader John Steenhuisen outlined the expedited unbundling of Eskom, investment in grid infrastructure, and a regulatory framework for micro-grid construction:

# KwaZulu-Natal premier Nomusa Dube-Ncube has unveiled the economic recovery programme in the state of the province address. Reflecting on past commitments and outlining future plans, Dube-Ncube says the government brought initiatives back on track to attract more airlines to fly into King Shaka International Airport. She expressed gratitude to airlines like Emirates, Qatar Airways, Turkish Airlines, Air Link, Eswatini Air, and others for reinvesting in routes that improve access not only to neighbouring countries, but globally as well:

# Rugby: James Murphy has linked up with the Blitzbok squad in the USA as they prepare for this weekend’s Los Angeles sevens. He replaces Ricardo Duarttee, who returned to South Africa after the Vancouver tournament due to personal reasons. Murphy last played for the Springbok Sevens in Perth at the end of January and is keen to contribute again:

# Financial indicators: The dollar trades at 19-rand-19-cents and the euro at 20-rand-76-cents. One British pound costs 24-rand-26-cents and Bitcoin trades at 60-thousand-230-dollars-36-cents. Gold sells at two-thousand-and-35-dollars-51-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 82-dollars-46-cents a barrel.

# And finally: A donation of over 19-billion-rand to a New York medical school is described as the biggest of this kind ever in the United States. It was donated by former pediatrics professor at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Ruth Gottesman, with the intention of providing free tuition to the institution’s students. She is the widow of Wall Street investor, David “Sandy” Gottesman, whose fortune was estimated at 57-billion-rand when he died in 2022. Ninety-three-year old Gottesman says she feels blessed to be making this gift to such a worthy cause.

Stay tuned for more news………….