News 18:00

BULLETIN 8 January 6 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# The Information Regulator says its order against the Basic Education Department on the publication of matric results remains in effect
# The Save South Africa Civic Movement calls on government to save jobs
# And Tennis: Ben Shelton loses the battle of the young players in Auckland

# The Information Regulator says the Department of Basic Education remains non-compliant with its Protection of Personal Information Act orders. This after the High Court in Pretoria ruled against the regulator’s urgent application to stop the publication of the 2024 matric results in newspapers and other media next week. The regulator is disappointed by the decision but maintains that publishing the results still violates the law. It will continue to enforce its orders and expects the department to comply, with further legal actions to be taken if necessary. 

# The Save South Africa Civic Movement is calling on government to prioritise the working class and save jobs. This comes as ArcelorMittal South Africa has decided to close its Newcastle and Vereeniging operations, which will affect about 35-percent of the company’s workforce. The movement’s Gauteng chairperson, Lerato Moshesh, says the promise of job creation and business support is hard to believe from the government of national unity when all they see is retrenchments and downscaling of businesses:

# The Red Cross has called for safe and unhindered access to Gaza to bring desperately needed aid into the war-torn Palestinian territory wracked by hunger and where babies are freezing to death. Heavy rain and flooding have ravaged the makeshift shelters in Gaza, leaving thousands with up to 30 centimetres of water inside their damaged tents. Citing the United Nations, the Red Cross highlighted the deaths of eight newborn babies who had been living in tents without warmth or protection from the rain and falling temperatures.

# Tennis: US top seed Ben Shelton’s preparation for the Australian Open was dealt a blow with an upset loss to Czech teen sensation Jakub Mensik at the Auckland Classic. Playing his first match in nearly two months, world number 21 Shelton was beaten 7-6, 4-6, 7-5 in the second round. The 22-year-old American, who received a bye through the first round, served strongly but couldn’t match the consistency of his 19-year-old opponent’s groundstrokes.

# Financial indicators: The dollar trades at 18-rand-87-cents and the euro at 19-rand-42-cents. One British pound costs 23-rand-28-cents and Bitcoin trades at 95-thousand-467-dollars. Gold sells at two-thousand-660-dollars-85-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 76-dollars-87-cents a barrel.

# And finally: Researchers from the University of Cape Town and the Giraffe Conservation Foundation have reaffirmed a study that discovered four distinct species of giraffe based on their genetics. For the project, the team assembled the largest known dataset for any medium to large wildlife, by 3D-scanning 515 giraffe skulls from African national parks, game farms, taxidermists, and museum collections globally. UCT’s professor Nikolaos Kargopoulos says the existence of four distinct giraffe species has clear implications for their conservation:

Stay tuned for more news………….