Latest news with #975
GMA Network
24-07-2025
- General
- GMA Network
Solo bettor wins P63.9M Lotto 6/42 jackpot on Thursday, July 24 draw
A solo bettor is P63.9 million richer after winning the Lotto 6/42 jackpot drawn by the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) on Thursday, July 24, 2025. The Lotto 6/42 winner picked the combination 24-34-32-09-21-16 to claim the P63,908,331.60 prize. There were no winners for Superlotto 6/49, the numbers 47-42-29-31-48-08 would have won P38,975,027. For more lotto results, visit here. — RF, GMA Integrated News
The Citizen
11-07-2025
- The Citizen
City Power concerned about rising attacks on their staff
City Power CEO Tshifularo Mashava expressed deep concern over the escalating intimidation campaign against utility staff. City Power has suspended electricity services to Kanana Extensions 4 and 5 following escalating incidents of technician intimidation and hostage situations across Johannesburg. The utility condemns a surge in violent confrontations that have seen staff threatened, assaulted, and held captive while conducting routine maintenance work. The service suspension comes after community members stormed the Midrand Service Delivery Centre, blocked gates for hours, and prevented technicians from addressing power outages in the area. City Power technician held hostage during meter audit On Thursday morning, a City Power contractor was held hostage and physically assaulted at a domestic property in Florida, Roodepoort. The technician was conducting a meter audit and disconnection when the situation turned violent. The customer's account showed arrears exceeding R56,975. When informed of the disconnection, the customer allegedly became aggressive and confined the technician to the property. 'The suspect reportedly locked the gates, assaulted the technician and threatened him with a firearm,' said Isaac Mangena, City Power's Public Relations and Communication general manager. The customer claimed to have signed an Acknowledgement of Debt and paid R30,000, but no proof of payment was available on-site. 'The technician was merely following protocol and should never have been subjected to such violence,' Mangena added. While the contractor has not yet filed formal charges, Mangena stated that City Power strongly condemns the incident and urges customers to resolve disputes through official channels. ALSO READ: City Power schedules multiple 8-hour maintenance outages across Johannesburg Illegal electricity syndicate dismantled The Florida incident followed a major enforcement operation on Wednesday, 9 July 2025, in Tshepisong, Roodepoort. City Power's Revenue Protection Unit, working with the Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department, dismantled an illegal electricity network operating from a private residence. Officials discovered the home was illegally supplying power to nearby households and a newly established informal settlement through underground and overhead cables. A vigilant resident had alerted authorities to the operation. 'Upon inspection, City Power technicians found that live supply lines had been tampered with and diverted from a municipal pillar, posing extreme danger to human life and infrastructure. 'Around 250kg of illegally installed cables were removed,' Mangena explained. The homeowner allegedly operated a backyard micro-utility, charging neighbouring residents for access to stolen electricity. While the suspect remains at large, investigations continue, and the matter will proceed to prosecution. Service suspension following community blockade Community members from Kanana Extensions 4 and 5 forced City Power to suspend services after blocking the Midrand Service Delivery Centre. The residents prevented technicians from leaving the facility, disrupting repair work across multiple areas. City Power technicians had responded to an outage the previous night and discovered the fault required daylight repairs on overhead lines. The task was scheduled for the day shift team. 'However, while our teams were preparing to conduct the repairs and sourcing the necessary materials, community members blocked the gates and refused to let them leave the SDC, further delaying the process of repair work in that area as well as in other areas,' Mangena said. ALSO READ: City Power to replace maintenance fleet with electric vehicles Pattern of City Power staff intimidation across Johannesburg Similar incidents have occurred across the city in recent weeks. On Wednesday, electricians dispatched to Rabie Ridge were held hostage and threatened by residents, only being released after the security team's intervention. Two weeks ago, services to Mayibuye were suspended for nearly a week after technicians faced threats and hostage situations while installing prepaid meters. Three weeks ago, City Power technicians and a contractor were held hostage at a Klipfontein substation during a power outage. 'Due to these continued safety risks, City Power has taken a decision to temporarily suspend services in Kanana Extensions 4 and 5, where technicians can no longer operate safely,' Mangena stated. ALSO READ: City Power suspends restoration in Mayibuye after technicians held hostage CEO condemns lawlessness City Power CEO Tshifularo Mashava expressed deep concern over the escalating intimidation campaign against utility staff. 'We are deeply concerned by the rising trend of intimidation and threats against our teams. No employee should be forced to work under the fear of being attacked. 'These acts of lawlessness are not only criminal, but also jeopardise our ability to deliver services to those who need them most. Mashava said they would not put their staff's safety at risk and would not hesitate to withdraw them from any dangerous situations. Illegal connections compound service challenges The affected areas are known hotspots for illegal connections, meter tampering, and low vending patterns, which frequently cause overloading and repeated outages. Many communities have not been normalised through smart prepaid meter installation, with efforts often meeting resistance. Mangena noted that these issues have been raised with community leaders, and engagement continues to find lasting solutions. 'Some of these communities have not yet been normalised through the installation of our smart prepaid meters, and efforts to do so have often been met with resistance, further compounding service delivery challenges,' he explained. ALSO READ: When is the deadline to register for free basic electricity? Zero tolerance policy on City Power staff safety City Power views these incidents as symptomatic of growing risks facing Johannesburg's electricity grid, whether through violent obstruction of disconnection efforts or profit-driven illegal distribution schemes. 'Such acts compromise the safety of personnel, overload the network, and deprive paying customers of a reliable supply,' Mangena said. They maintain a zero-tolerance approach to threats against technicians, infrastructure tampering, and illegal connections. It said services will only resume once safe working conditions are restored. 'We urge all community members to refrain from these unlawful actions and to allow City Power technicians to do their work safely, including the vital task of normalising these areas for long-term energy stability,' Mangena concluded. City Power encourages community members to report suspicious or unlawful activity and emphasises that staff safety remains non-negotiable in service delivery efforts. READ NEXT: City Power explains why it charges some customers more than others
Time of India
26-06-2025
- Health
- Time of India
'Facing diseases year after year': Andhra Pradesh faces aquaculture crisis as shrimp diseases trigger Rs 4000 crore annual loss; suffers massive yield declines
VISAKHAPATNAM: Andhra Pradesh, India's top shrimp-producing state, has emerged as the epicentre of aquaculture-related economic distress caused by disease outbreaks. A study by the ICAR-Central Institute of Brackishwater Aquaculture (Chennai) conducted between 2021 and 2023 estimates the state suffers annual shrimp-related losses of about 3,975 crore. Beyond monetary losses, the state also records the country's highest productivity drop per metric tonne/hectare/crop. Average productivity losses reach 4.69 mt/ha/crop for EHP and 4.5 mt/ha/crop for WSSV, well above the national averages of 1.8 and 2.58 mt/ha/crop, respectively. Combined infections of EHP and WSSV further exacerbate losses for farmers in Andhra Pradesh, with affected farms averaging 4 mt/ha/crop, compared to Tamil Nadu's 3.43 mt/ha/crop and Gujarat's 2 mt/ha/crop. Although WSSV has a higher national probability of occurrence (25%), EHP leads to greater economic losses in the state, primarily due to Andhra Pradesh's unusually high probability of disease occurrence (PDO) of 22% for EHP - almost three times its 8% PDO for WSSV. Farmers and fisheries officials note that the persistence of EHP is compounded by its ability to remain latent in pond sediment and its resistance to commonly used disinfectants, making eradication especially difficult in traditional grow-out systems. M Satyanarayana Raju, an aqua farmer from East Godavari, said that shrimp farmers are grappling with relentless disease pressures. "We are facing these diseases year after year. , he said.
IOL News
21-06-2025
- Business
- IOL News
How the Correctional Services plans to allocate R1. 2 billion for prisoner food provision
The Department of Correctional Services has placed the provision of food for prisoners as one of the top four cost drivers of its budget after compensation of employees, property payments, and public-private partnership support. Image: Timothy Bernard / Independent Newspapers The Department of Correctional Services has allocated R1.2 billion for the provision of food for its more than 100,000 prisoners in the 2025/26 financial year, Minister Pieter Groenewald said. Responding to parliamentary questions from EFF MP Betty Diale, Groenewald said the department spent R1.4 billion on the provision of food on prisoners in 2023/24 financial year. The amount had increased to R1.5 billion in the last financial year that ended in March 2025. 'For the 2025/26 financial year, the department allocated R1,286,972,000 for the provision of nutrition to inmates,' he said. Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Advertisement Next Stay Close ✕ Ad loading In its 2025-2030 strategic plan, the department places the provision of food for prisoners as one of the top four cost drivers of its budget after compensation of employees, property payments, and public-private partnership support. The document puts the provision for food to the tune of R952,975. Groenewald also said the department planned to maximise the utilisation of the services of the prisoners to produce food for themselves, to enable the department to redirect funds to other essential programmes. He said the prisoners will participate in the production workshops in agriculture to maximise their skills utilisation for bread and agricultural production for their ration. 'The self-sufficiency and sustainability programme in the department is centred around offender development, through the provision of work opportunities to offenders in bakeries and agriculture. Expansion of bakeries and agricultural projects towards an increase in offender skills utilisation for food production,' he said. The department's strategic plan document states that the department wants to become self-sustainable through activities such as those in production workshops, bakeries, agriculture, skills development, formal education and training, as well as through arts and culture. 'The department will expand marketing of production workshops' products and services to other client departments to improve revenue generation.' Meanwhile, Groenewald revealed that the cost per capita per inmate incarcerated for the 2025/26 financial year is R462.13 per day. Asked how his department managed financial implications for imprisonment of foreign nationals, he said there were 13,181 sentenced foreign nationals in prisons as at May 4 this year. 'The total cost to accommodate 13,181 sentenced foreign nationals on 4 May 2025 was R6,091,335.53 per day.' He stated that foreign national prisoners were not a separate category of inmates. Groenewald added that there were currently no bilateral agreements with neighbouring countries to transfer sentenced foreign national prisoners to serve in their countries of origin. 'The DCS is in consultation with the South African Police Service, Department of Home Affairs, Department of Justice and Constitutional Development, and Department of International Relations and Cooperation to formalise a South African procedure to inter-state transfer of offenders.'
New Straits Times
21-06-2025
- New Straits Times
Retired teacher, senior citizen lose RM352,000 to scams
JOHOR BARU: Police are investigating two commercial crime crises that cost a retired teacher and a senior citizen more than RM352,000 in total losses. Johor Baru South police chief Assistant Commissioner Raub Selamat said the first case involved a 60-year-old retired teacher who lost RM243,975 in an investment scam advertised on social media. Lured by a promised 560 per cent return within three months, the victim joined a WhatsApp group and was instructed to download an application purportedly linked to the investment. Between April 28 and June 19, the victim made seven online and over-the-counter bank transfers totalling RM255,100 into two bank accounts. She received RM11,125 in returns, resulting in a net loss of nearly a quarter million ringgit. "Checks revealed 17 prior fraud reports linked to the bank accounts used," Raub said in a statement today. In the second case, a senior citizen lost RM108,959 after he received a phone call from a man claiming to be a bank officer. The caller claimed the victim's credit card had been misused on an e-commerce online platform and convinced him to perform several "verification" transactions, which included transferring RM8,989 from his wife's credit card to the suspect's TNG eWallet. He was also instructed to transfer RM99,970 via DuitNow from his bank account. Raub said the suspect became unreachable once the transactions were completed. Checks showed the phone number had been linked to two similar fraud cases. He urged the public to be wary of investment offers on digital platforms and not to trust promises of unrealistic returns. He also advised verifying suspicious calls through official bank channels and reporting scams immediately to the National Scam Response Centre at 997, which can help block suspect accounts and stop fund transfers.
