News 18:00

BULLETIN 30 January 6 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# Pringle Bay residents are evacuated amid a raging fire
# NSFAS says it’s making strides in its closeout project 
# And Cricket: Australia clinches the T20 series against the Protea-women

# The Overberg Municipality has taken the precautionary measure of evacuating residents from the small coastal town of Pringle Bay in the Western Cape due to safety concerns caused by raging fires in the area. Municipal manager Dean O’Neill says residents have been relocated to the Kleinmond town hall as the fire approaches residential homes. Head police reservist Axel Maier says firefighters are working tirelessly to contain the fires, which have been exacerbated by strong winds:

# The National Student Financial Aid Scheme has announced significant progress in its ongoing closeout project, addressing student funding challenges across 50 TVET colleges and 26 universities. Successful reconciliations for the academic years 2017 to ’22 have been achieved, demonstrating collaborative efforts between NSFAS and educational institutions. Spokesperson Ishmael Mnisi says through draft agreements, NSFAS has recovered around 600-million-rand, and some institutions have signed, signalling positive momentum in the recovery process. Mnisi adds 1.7-billion-rand has been disbursed to universities, addressing outstanding payments for last year.

# Political analyst Bheki Mngomezulu says the ANC had no alternative but to suspend its former president, Jacob Zuma. Mngomezulu believes the decision was made to safeguard the party’s integrity after Zuma declared that he would not vote for the ANC. Mngomezulu highlights the significant impact of the ANC’s move, particularly as the Umkhonto we Sizwe party gains support in provinces like KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng:

# Cricket: Australia’s women clinched the three-match T20 series against the Proteas by winning the deciding encounter in Hobart with five wickets. South Africa posted 162 for seven, with Marizanne Kapp top-scoring with 75 runs. Suné Luus improved the record for the most ducks to nine when she was run out. The hostesses reached the target with five wickets down and four balls left, with opener Beth Mooney contributing 82 runs. Kapp says a few errors cost them the game and the series:

# The financial indicators: The dollar trades at 18-rand-86-cents and the euro at 20-rand-45-cents. One British pound costs 23-rand-92-cents and Bitcoin trades at 43-thousand-349-dollars-92-cents. Gold sells at two-thousand-and-45-dollars-70-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 81-dollars-56-cents a barrel.

# And finally: One of aviation’s greatest mysteries may be solved – the disappearance of Amelia Earhart almost 87 years ago. The American pioneer was the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean, but her plane disappeared over the Pacific Ocean during a flight around the world in 1937. She was declared dead two years later. A former US Air Force pilot and CEO of Deep Sea Vision, Tony Romeo, says his team found sonar images of a plane-like shape on the sea floor between Australia and Hawaii he believes might be the wreckage of Earhart’s Lockheed10-E Electra.

Stay tuned for more news………….