News 18:00

BULLETIN 13 January 6 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# The Department of Basic Education encourages learner repetition to improve results
# The Freedom Front Plus urges an urgent disaster declaration to protect the livestock industry
# And, there is a a distinct South African flavour in the Dutch World Cup cricket squad

# The Department of Basic Education director-general Mathanzima Mweli has encouraged provinces to allow learners to repeat grades, saying they perform better than part-time candidates. Speaking at a top achievers’ celebration, Mweli noted a decrease of about 40-thousand part-time candidates and said the system remains stable. He also added that while male performance declined slightly, female candidates showed a small improvement, offsetting the drop:

In further comment about the matric results, the Azanian People’s Organisation has rejected attempts to portray the National Senior Certificate results as a success, saying they expose a deeply unequal education system failing black learners. The organisation says South Africa remains trapped in a two-tier system that reproduces inequality and limits life chances. AZAPO criticised the 30-percent pass threshold, under-performance in key subjects, and high learner dropout rates. It has called for radical resource redistribution, improved foundational learning, and a unified, decolonised public education system.

# The Freedom Front Plus calls for a state of disaster to be declared in response to the foot-and-mouth disease outbreak. The party warns the disease has now spread from KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape to major feedlots, threatening the beef industry and farmers’ livelihoods. The FF Plus’s Wynand Boshoff says declaring a disaster would allow more funding for vaccines, better control of animal movement and faster action to contain the outbreak:

# A high-stakes appeal by far-right French politician Marine le Pen started today against a ruling banning her from running for public office for five years. She was found guilty of embezzling European Union funds last year. If the ban is upheld, Le Pen will not be able to stand in next year’s presidential election. She denies any wrongdoing and is hopeful about the outcome. The president of her National Rally party, Jordan Bardella, said earlier barring Le Pen from the election would be deeply worrying for democracy.

# Cricket: The Netherlands’ squad for the T20 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka has a very distinct South African flavour. Among the South African-born players are 41-year-old veteran Roelof van der Merwe, who represented the Proteas between 2009 and 2011, Kyle Klein, Colin Ackermann, and Michael Levitt. Head coach Ryan Cook and assistant coach Heino Kuhn also hails from Mzansi. The Netherlands are in Group A along with Namibia, Pakistan, USA and co-hosts India. The tournament starts on 7 February.

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 16-rand-39-cents and the euro at 19-rand-12-cents. One British pound costs 22-rand-7-cents and Bitcoin trades at 92-thousand-069-dollars. Gold sells at four-thousand-616-dollars-79-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 64-dollars-33-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….