News 18:00

BULLETIN 11 February 6 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# The ANC rejects the opposition’s claims on the collapse of the government of national unity
# The MK Party defends Jacob Zuma’s legacy highlighting the progress during his tenure
# And rugby: The Boks will play Argentina at Twickenham in the final Rugby Championship match

# The ANC has strongly defended its policies and rejected opposition claims that the government of national unity is on the verge of collapse. In the debate on the state of the nation address, ANC chief whip Mdumiseni Ntuli dismissed the opposition’s assertions, stating they had been proven wrong. Ntuli emphasised that the ANC, as the leader of the national democratic revolution, has a duty to uphold its principles and defend its policies against detractors:

The MK Party has meanwhile defended former president Jacob Zuma, calling him South Africa’s most successful president. In his state of nation address debate, the party’s deputy president, John Hlophe, praised Zuma for investing in education, increasing life expectancy and providing antiretroviral drugs to fight HIV/AIDS. Hlophe criticised president Cyril Ramaphosa’s government of national unity for failing to deliver on promises:

# Tshwane mayor Nasiphi Moya has outlined progress made in addressing the six key priorities for improving service delivery in the city. The mayor gave an update on her first 100 days in office earlier today. Moya says these areas of focus were aimed at maintaining Tshwane to the standard of a world class capital city. She lists among these, the efforts made in bringing government much closer to the communities:

# The DA in the Western Cape condemns the involvement of police officials in acts of rape and sexual misconduct. This follows a report by the Independent Police Investigative Directorate revealing 110 alleged rape incidents involving officials in the 2023/’24 financial year. The province recorded 19 of these cases, up from nine in the previous year. The DA’s Thomas Walters calls for stronger accountability to rebuild trust in the police.

# Rugby: The Springboks will wrap up this year’s Rugby Championship campaign against Argentina at Twickenham in London on 4 October. This will be the teams’ first encounter on neutral territory in the southern hemisphere showpiece. Los Pumas will be the third external opponent the world champions face at the iconic stadium in the last three seasons after beating New Zealand by 35-7 in a warm-up game for the World Cup in 2023, and Wales by 41-13 last season. The Boks start their season against Italy on 5 July.

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 18-rand-45-cents and the euro at 19-rand-6-cents. One British pound costs 22-rand-89-cents and Bitcoin trades at 96-thousand-987-dollars. Gold sells at two-thousand-899-dollars-21-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 76-dollars-82-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….