News 06:00

BULLETIN30 October 6 am

Good morning. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# The presidential envoy on Agriculture says SA’s exclusion from AGOA will not be catastrophic
# The FF Plus renews its call for stronger action against farm attacks
# And, a CNN poll places the Democrats in the lead in Senate races for Michigan and Texas

# Presidential Envoy on Agriculture, Wandile Sihlobo, says South Africa losing access to the African Growth and Opportunity Act would create challenges for several agricultural industries, but it will not be catastrophic. The country has been the greatest beneficiary of AGOA, under which participating countries get duty-free access to the United States market in a variety of categories. Sihlobo says the loss of AGOA would have to be contextualised around other tariffs in effect against South African exports:

# The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, together with the SABC, will use its election prediction model during the 4 November local government elections. The model will predict possible election outcomes as voting results come in. It uses past voting patterns and the latest results to improve its predictions. The CSIR says the model has been used since 1999. It stresses that these are predictions, not official results. The Electoral Commission remains responsible for announcing the final election results.

# The Freedom Front Plus calls on president Cyril Ramaphosa to acknowledge the seriousness of farm murders and take urgent steps to prevent further attacks. The appeal follows a brutal attack on North West farmer Donovan Marx, fighting for his life in hospital after he was reportedly tortured and shot in the back. The party leader Corné Mulder says farm attacks are often characterised by extreme violence and should be prioritised by law enforcement:

# The South African Firearms Trainers Association condemns taxi-related shootings in the Western Cape, including incidents in Somerset West, Khayelitsha, Epping, Delft, Bonteheuwel and Maitland. The association’s Mike Mbedzi says commuter safety must be a priority and disputes over taxi routes must never lead to violence or loss of life. Mbedzi urges police to remove illegal firearms:

# Democrats are well-positioned in key Senate races in Texas and Michigan ahead of next Tuesday’s midterm elections, while there is a tighter contest in Kansas and Maine. A new CNN poll has found that in Michigan, Democrat Abdul El-Sayed has received support from 49-percent of likely voters compared to 42-percent for Republican Mike Rogers. In Texas, Democrat James Talarico has a lead of 49-percent over Republican Ken Paxton, who is on 43-percent among likely voters. The poll found no clear winner in the Senate contests in either Maine or Kansas. 

# Cricket: South Africa ended day three of the third and deciding Test on 140 for four in their second innings, leading Australia by 40 runs in Cape Town. The visitors were bowled out for 429 after lunch, with Josh Inglis scoring 102 from 135 balls. Trailing by 100 runs in the first innings, the Proteas lost the wickets of Aiden Markram and David Bedingham early. Marques Ackerman scored 62 before he was bowled out by Mitchell Starc, with captain Temba Bavuma out in the second-to-last over of the day on 35.

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 16-rand-59-cents and the euro at 18-rand-58-cents. One British pound costs 22-rand-22-cents and Bitcoin trades at 78-thousand-857-dollars. Gold sells at four-thousand-25-dollars-46-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 115-dollars-60-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….