News 18:00

BULLETIN 14 June 6 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# Thoko Didiza is elected as new speaker of the National Assembly
# The Progressive Caucus accuses the ANC of disguising the government of national unity 
# And rugby: Rassie Erasmus says a victory for the Bulls over Leinster will boost the Boks before the Ireland series 

# Former minister of Agriculture and Land Affairs, Thoko Didiza, has been elected Speaker of Parliament. She received 284 votes to the EFF’s Veronica Mente’s 49.

# The Progressive Caucus, consisting of the EFF, ATM, UDM, PAC, Al-Jamah, and UAT, has accused the ANC of using the government of national unity to disguise their alliance with the DA and the IFP. The six parties claim they have been excluded from the meaningful and comprehensive government of national unity discussions. ATM leader, Vuyolwethu Zungula, says it is clear the ANC is forming a coalition with parties it prefers:

# The ANC’s Nontembeko Nothemba Boyce has been re-elected as speaker of the KwaZulu-Natal legislature. She was nominated by the IFP and seconded by the DA. Boyce received 41 votes against Mervyn Alexander Dirks of the People’s Assembly’s 39. Boyce emphasised the legislature’s duty to respect and uphold the constitution. She also called on members to respect the house while serving the people of KwaZulu-Natal:

# The multi-million rand asbestos roof removal case is back in the Free State High Court in Bloemfontein. The trial was originally set to start in April, but was postponed to today. The case involves the alleged irregular awarding of a 255-million-rand asbestos roof removal contract in October 2014. Eighteen accused, including several companies, face more than 70 counts of corruption and money laundering. Among the accused are former Free State premier Ace Magashule and businessman Edwin Sodi.

# Rugby: Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus believes a victory for the Bulls over Irish team Leinster will boost the national team before next month’s two-match Test series against Ireland. The Pretoria team hosts former Bok coach Jacques Nienaber’s squad in the semifinal of the United Rugby Championship at Loftus tomorrow. Erasmus says although he would love to have the Bulls’ Boks in his camp for next weekend’s Test against Wales in London, he really wants them to advance to the final.

# The financial indicators: The dollar trades at 18-rand-48-cents and the euro at 19-rand-74-cents. One British pound costs 23-rand-41-cents and Bitcoin trades at 67-thousand-782-dollars-59-cents. Gold sells at two-thousand-333-dollars-24-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 83-dollars-78-cents a barrel.

# And finally: Artificial intelligence can now detect whether your cat is in pain by looking at its face, using an app built by vets and developers in Japan. The app was trained using six-thousand pictures of cats, and is more than 95-percent accurate. Most vets can tell whether an animal is in pain, but it’s harder for owners. More than 230-thousand people have used the app since it launched in Japan. The country last year had an estimated 16-million pet cats and dogs, more than the number of children under 15.

Stay tuned for more news………….