News 11:00

BULLETIN 27 August 11 am

Good morning. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# The GOOD Party wants to appeal the Electoral Court ruling over an undeclared election campaign donation
# Minister Aucamp extends the registration deadline for supplying livestock for export to the UAE
# And tennis: The Czech duo Muchova and Mensik are the US Open mixed doubles champions

# The GOOD Party will seek leave to appeal the Electoral Court ruling that it breached the Party Political Funding Act. It found GOOD and secretary general Brett Herron failed to disclose a 900-thousand-rand donation ahead of the 2021 local government elections. GOOD must pay 50-thousand-rand for contravening Section 9, while the party and Herron, as accounting official, must pay a 40-thousand-rand administrative penalty. Herron says the court erred:

# Minister of Agriculture, Willie Aucamp, has extended the registration deadline for farms and feedlots supplying livestock for slaughter for red meat exports to the United Arab Emirates. They now have until the end of December to ensure they have put the necessary systems in place to comply with the Veterinary Procedural Notice 59 regulations. Aucamp says the department is committed to supporting producers as they expand their reach in key global markets:

# The DA says political office-bearers in North West should be subjected to mandatory and independent lifestyle audits. The party argues financial declarations alone are not enough and must be verified to identify possible conflicts of interest, unexplained wealth and other financial red flags. The DA’s Freddy Sonakile says the audits should be conducted fairly and independently, with safeguards for privacy and due process, to strengthen accountability in public office.

Moving abroad:

# The death toll from the catastrophic flash floods that hit Nepal and China’s Tibet has risen to 162, with one-thousand-384 people now missing, including four South Africans. Among those unaccounted for are 177 from India, 63 from the US, 34 from Australia, 33 from Britain and 25 from Canada. Authorities say rescue operations have been hindered by the mountainous terrain, poor weather and blocked roads in the hard-hit areas. Chinese president Xi Jinping says the most urgent task is to do everything possible to search for and rescue missing people.

# Tennis: The all-Czech duo of Karolina Muchova and Jakub Mensik are the new US Open mixed doubles champions, earning 17.6-million-rand’s prize money. They defeated the Swiss-Italian pairing of Belinda Bencic and Flavio Cobolli to win their first Grand Slam title. Muchova and Jakub Mensik made the final after saving two match points in the semifinal against Russian duo Mirra Andreeva and Andrey Rublev. Muchova says they were not expecting to win:

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 15-rand-94-cents and the euro at 18-rand-57-cents. One British pound costs 21-rand-67-cents and Bitcoin trades at 78-thousand-759-dollars. Gold sells at four-thousand-604-dollars-61-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 87-dollars-72-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….