News 13:00

BULLETIN 1 August 1 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# Ramaphosa welcomes Seriti Green’s new agreement to invest ten-billion-rand in South Africa’s energy production 
# Soil of Africa welcomes the appointment of the National Council on foot-and-mouth disease
# And: ActionSA welcomes the Mettler High Court judgement fixing what should never have happened

# President Cyril Ramaphosa praised Seriti Green for its additional 10-billion-rand investment in Mpumalanga’s renewable energy sector, calling it a major milestone in South Africa’s energy production. He says the extra 10-billion-rand signed, will bring total committed and deployed investment by the company in the region to 25-billion-rand. Ramaphosa says government is planning a further 600-megawatts of wind energy development to create one of the largest renewable energy precincts in Southern Africa, with a total of 187 turbines:

# Minister of Agriculture, Willie Aucamp has announced the appointment Southern African Agri Initiative chairperson, Theo de Jager and Veterinarian Network director, Danie Odendaal to the Industry Coordination Council of foot-and-mouth disease. The council is made up out of industry role players and was established to ensure that industry plays an active and coordinated role in supporting the rollout of the National FMD strategy. The minister says this includes vaccine distribution, traceability and disease control:

# Soil of Africa Civic Movement has welcomed president Cyril Ramaphosa’s appointment of seven members of the National Council on gender-based violence and femicide with effect from today until July 2029. The movement’s spokesperson, Luzuko Sofute says the establishment of a fully constituted Council marks an important milestone in South Africa’s ongoing efforts to combat GBVF. He says GBVF continues to threaten the safety, dignity, and fundamental human rights of women, children, and vulnerable persons across the country.

# ActionSA has welcomed the Pretoria High Court judgment interdicting the suspension of the City of Tshwane Municipal Manager, Johann Mettler. ActionSA says its vote against the suspension should have been sufficient to prevent it from taking place. However, the party chairperson, Michael Beaumont says the leave of absence granted to a large number of DA and FF Plus councillors resulted in the now impugned ruling by the Speaker of Council to discount the votes of those councillors when they later arrived at the Council meeting:

# Spain said on Friday it had reversed a huge rush of migrants into a Spanish enclave in North Africa, with most of the more than 50-thousand people who had crossed the border by land and sea already heading back voluntarily. The Spanish government said 57 bodies had been recovered on the Spanish side of the border alone. Some drowned and some were crushed while trying to climb the breakwater that holds the border fence. The rush on the border caused division in Europe, where leaders of fellow EU states called for Spain to ensure that the incident was contained.

# And rugby: Few school matches grab the attention such as today’s interschools encounter between Gimnasium and Boys’ High in Paarl. The Boland town is again divided for the annual rivalry, with the main match between the first teams kicking off at the Faure Street Stadium at four. Gimmies are out for revenge after losing 35-33 last year while leading 33-21 at one stage. The two schools have produced a combined 58 Springboks between them, with Gimmies’ captain of 2025, Markus Muller, regarded as a future Bok star.

Stay tuned for more news………….