News 18:00

BULLETIN 20 May 6 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# The person who died after allegedly being locked in a Gauteng cold storage room was a 33-year-old 
# An AfriForum report indicates nearly one farm murder per week in 2023 
# And tennis: Amelie Mauresmo describes Rafael Nadal’s 14 Roland Garros titles as one of the greatest feats in sport 

# The person who died in Heidelberg, Gauteng, after allegedly being locked in a supermarket’s cold storage room for 11 hours yesterday, was a 33-year-old man and not a 13-year-old boy as was previously reported. Police identified the man as Bandile Shabalala. It is alleged a manager at Shoprite locked him in the room after he was found stealing a chocolate bar. News24 reports his two friends fled when security officials apprehended him. Shabalala’s body was found outside a funeral home this morning.

# AfriForum’s annual report on farm attacks and murders shows 49 farm murders in 296 attacks during 2023. Chief spokesperson for Community Safety, Jacques Broodryk, says this is approximately one murder per week. Broodryk has criticised the government and the SAPS for its double standards in preventing and investigating such crimes. He urges the government to form a special ministerial task team to address farm murders:

Meanwhile, the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development is advising farmers to not allow animals onto their land without veterinary health clearance at the animals’ point of origin. The department’s spokesperson, Reggie Ngcobo, says the virus causing the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease on a farm in Humansdorp in the Eastern Cape is almost identical to the one that led to widespread outbreaks in Limpopo, North West, the Free State, Gauteng and Mpumalanga in 2021 and ’22:

# WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has won a bid to appeal against a UK court ruling that approved his extradition to the United States, to face trial for breaking national security laws. Two London High Court judges granted Assange permission to appeal, having previously asked Washington to provide satisfactory assurances about free speech protections at any US trial. Assange is wanted by Washington for publishing hundreds of thousands of secret US documents as head of the whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks from 2010.

# Tennis: The tournament director of the French Open, Amelie Mauresmo, describes Rafael Nadal’s 14 titles at Roland Garros as one of the greatest feats in sport. The former world number one says it’s unreal to have achieved this in a Grand Slam tournament on a surface that is probably the most demanding of all. Mauresmo hopes the Spaniard will be able to play for the final time this year, but realises his body will dictate whether he will return to what she describes as his home.

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 18-rand-26-cents and the euro at 19-rand-85-cents. One British pound costs 23-rand-21-cents and Bitcoin trades at 66-thousand-833-dollars-77-cents. Gold sells at two-thousand-417-dollars-1-cent a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 84-dollars-29-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….