News 18:00

BULLETIN 10 July 6 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# A court exposes the harrowing conditions faced by 144 Life Esidimeni patients
# Various Western Cape schools are to close tomorrow due to severe storm warnings
# And, Olympics: Selvyn Davids will captain the Blitzboks in Paris

# The High Court in Pretoria has revealed that the 144 Life Esidimeni patients endured torture, neglect, and deprivation of food, water, and medication. They were moved from a private psychiatric hospital group to unequipped, unlicensed non-governmental organisations in 2016. Non-governmental organisation Anchor has been accused of creating death traps for patients. Judge Mmonoa Teffo ruled that the state mental health patients died under the care of 27 unlicensed NGOs, contracted by Gauteng’s Department of Health:

# Western Cape MEC for Education David Maynier has announced the closure of schools in the Cape Town metro, Cape Winelands, Overberg, and parts of the West Coast district tomorrow. The MEC cites safety concerns following consultations with the Provincial Disaster Risk Management Centre and the South African Weather Service. Schools in affected districts have been notified. Maynier confirmed 20 schools have received closure approval, with 137 reporting infrastructure damage:

# The minister of Public Works and Infrastructure, Dean Macpherson has emphasised the need for a collaborative effort to eradicate construction mafias. These groups use extortion, violence, intimidation, and disruption, particularly in KwaZulu-Natal and the Western Cape, causing significant economic losses. Speaking to the SABC, Macpherson highlighted the importance of addressing these challenges to revitalise the construction industry, a key driver of economic growth and development.

#  Six people have been injured on the first day of the annual bull run in Pamplona, Spain. Most of the injured were hurt from what was said to be knocks. Along with that, a 37-year-old Spanish man was reportedly gored by a bull. The celebrations take place in July each year and are best known for the bull runs that take place every morning. Nearly 1.7-million people are said to have visited the event in 2022 and 16 have died since 1910.

# Olympics: Experienced playmaker Selvyn Davids will captain the Springbok Sevens rugby team at the Games in Paris. He is one of five players in the group of 12 who also participated in the previous Games in Tokyo, the others being Impi Visser, Zain Davids, Rosco Specman and Siviwe Soyizwapi. Ronald Brown and Katlego Letebele were named as travelling reserves. Head coach Philip Snyman kept the same group who secured qualification for the Blitzboks during a tournament in Monaco last month:

# And, the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 18-rand-7-cents and the euro at 19-rand-55-cents. One British pound costs 23-rand-21-cents and Bitcoin trades at 57-thousand-662-dollars-95-cents. Gold sells at two-thousand-381-dollars-25-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 84-dollars-62-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….