News 09:00

BULLETIN 31 July 9 am

Good morning. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# Zimbabwe spends over 79-million-rand on returning citizens
# The ANC urges South Africans to register to vote this weekend
# And, Hamas has agreed to disarm in Gaza completely

# Zimbabwe’s Finance and Economic Development minister, professor Mthuli Ncube, says the government has spent about 79.2-million-rand on the repatriation and reintegration of citizens returning from South Africa. More than 36-thousand Zimbabwean nationals have been repatriated through government-facilitated arrangements, while close to 80-thousand returned to the country through self-repatriation. Ncube says money covers transportation, temporary accommodation, food assistance and health services:

# The ANC has urged all eligible South Africans who have not yet registered as voters to do so in the second and final national voter registration weekend, tomorrow and Sunday. This is ahead of the November local government elections. During the first voter registration weekend held on 20 and 21 June, over three million registration transactions were recorded. ANC acting spokesperson, Nonceba Mhlauli, says the IEC’s voter registration campaign is important to ensure free and fair elections:

# Cape Town mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis says the metro’s capital expenditure tally of over 12.2-billion-rand for the 2025/2026 financial year is not only a record infrastructure investment for Cape Town, but a South African record for a city in a single year. Around 75-percent of the metro’s infrastructure investment directly benefits lower-income households. Hill-Lewis says infrastructure investment highlights over the next three years include 16.7-billion for water and sanitation, six-billion-rand in electrical grid upgrades and maintenance, and 3.3-billion-rand for informal settlement upgrading:

# Militant group Hamas says it has agreed to the Board of Peace’s plan to disarm in Gaza completely. US president Donald Trump described the agreement as a major milestone in the implementation of his 20-point peace plan for ending the war in Gaza. The four-page roadmap sets out a phased process linking Hamas’s disarmament to a gradual Israeli military withdrawal, and the deployment of a new Palestinian transitional authority backed by an international stabilisation force. Hamas warns that if Israel does not implement the agreement, it will do the same.

# Soccer: European governing body UEFA’s 55 member associations have unanimously voted to ‌boycott the World Cup and other FIFA competitions if the sport’s governing body proceeds with its controversial sell-off plan. FIFA president Gianni Infantino wants to launch a subsidiary worth around 334.46 billion-rand and sell off more than 20-percent of the new FIFA Forward Enterprise by raising an estimated 70.35 billion-rand this year. Concacaf, which governs the sport in North and Central America and hosted this year’s World Cup, says its 41 member associations have also rejected the proposal.

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 16-rand-49-cents and the euro at 18-rand-99-cents. One British pound costs 22-rand-18-cents, and Bitcoin trades at 64-thousand-210-dollars. Gold sells at four-thousand-78-dollars-8-cents a fine ounce, and Brent crude oil is quoted at 90-dollars-6-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….