News 18:00

BULLETIN 14 March 6 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# South Africa’s internet network is hit by undersea cable failures
# Another group of EFF MPs face sanctions for contempt of Parliament
# And, Olympics: Paris mayor says Russian athletes aren’t welcome at the Games

# South Africa is experiencing widespread internet disruptions due to multiple undersea cable breaks, with reports surging from various service users, including FNB, LinkedIn, and WhatsApp. Microsoft is probing an outage affecting services in the Europe, Middle East, and Africa region, particularly impacting users in South Africa, Kenya, and the United Kingdom. The precise location of the cable breaks, possibly near the Ivory Coast in West Africa, remains unconfirmed. Vodacom spokesperson Byron Kennedy confirmed the impact on the network providers:

# Nine Economic Freedom Fighters Members of Parliament have been found guilty of contempt of Parliament for calling president Cyril Ramaphosa a money launderer and refusing to withdraw the remarks during the budget speech in June 2022. This marks the third group of red berets to be found guilty by the Powers and Privileges Committee in recent months. The committee concluded its hearing into the disruptions after a delay in January. The matter is now expected to be referred to the National Assembly for sanctions.

# Minister in the Presidency, Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, announced the Cabinet has received a progress report on lifestyle audits of senior management service members. By the end of January last year, 24 national departments and 71 provincial departments had completed these audits. According to Ntshavheni, following additional interventions, the number of compliant departments increased to 36 national government departments and 89 provincial departments by the end of March last year:

# The sentencing of South African doctor Lauren Dickason, convicted of murdering her three daughters in New Zealand, has been delayed until June 26. Australian news outlet, The Press, reports that psychiatric assessments will determine whether she should be detained in a mental health facility or prison. Meanwhile, a conference of experts is scheduled for March 20 in place of the nominal sentencing date.  Dickason is currently remanded at Hillmorton Hospital awaiting sentencing, with further evaluations planned to address the type and length of her sentence.

# Olympics: The mayor of host city Paris wants Russian athletes to be banned from participating in the Games, while Israeli athletes should be fully welcomed. Anne Hidalgo says she would prefer the Russians not to come to her city. The International Olympic Committee will soon decide whether Russian and Belarusian athletes will be allowed to take part in the opening ceremony. Hidalgo says they can’t act as if Russia’s invasion of Ukraine didn’t exist, while the situation in Gaza was no comparison.

# And, the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 18-rand-72-cents and the euro at 20-rand-42-cents. One British pound costs 23-rand-89-cents and Bitcoin trades at 71-thousand-581-dollars-70-cents. Gold sells at two-thousand-and-161-dollars-99-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 84-dollars-68-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….