News 13:00

BULLETIN 3 July 1 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# Minister Hlabisa cracks down on unfunded municipal budgets
# ICASA introduces new mobile number regulations
# And cricket: The Proteas Women coach vows his team will learn valuable lessons after their semifinal defeat

# Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Velenkosini Hlabisa, has vowed to end the long-standing practice of municipalities adopting unfunded budgets. Speaking at the launch of the AGSA–COGTA Ten-time-ten Forum, Hlabisa said approving budgets without available funding amounts to misleading the public and undermines service delivery. He calls for coordinated action with the National Treasury and provincial governments to eliminate the practice within two years to strengthen financial oversight.

Auditor-General Tsakani Maluleke has warned during the event in Pretoria that municipalities risk losing governance gains ahead of the local government elections in November. She says changes in political leadership often lead to regression in municipal performance. Maluleke urges voters and political parties to elect capable leaders committed to accountability, transparency and good governance, and adds stronger collaboration is vital to enhance accountability:

# Cape Winelands Airport and Stellenbosch University have signed a partnership agreement to support innovation, research and skills development linked to the airport’s planned eight-billion-rand expansion. The project is expected to create about 35-thousand jobs during construction and more than 100-thousand direct and indirect jobs in the Western Cape. The university’s Deresh Ramjugernath says the collaboration will focus on areas including engineering, aviation, transport, logistics and sustainability:

# The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa has published new regulations to standardise the deactivation, recycling and reuse of inactive mobile numbers. The amendments aim to protect consumers by giving them adequate notice before numbers are deactivated while ensuring the efficient use of numbering resources. ICASA says the rules will create greater certainty across the telecommunications sector. Mobile operators will have a six-month transition period to update their systems before the regulations are fully implemented. 

# Cricket: Proteas Women coach, Mandla Mashimbyi, says valuable lessons were learnt from their defeat to England in the T20 World Cup semifinal. England defeated South Africa by 40 runs and will face six-time champions Australia in Sunday’s final at Lord’s. Mashimbyi says there were plenty of positives and the work they put in now must ensure they are ready when they get an opportunity to play in a World Cup again:

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 16-rand-21-cents and the euro at 18-rand-56-cents. One British pound costs 21-rand-66-cents and Bitcoin trades at 61-thousand-596-dollars. Gold sells at four-thousand-172-dollars-67-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 71-dollars-98-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….