News 17:00

BULLETIN 13 March 5 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# Political parties are warned that casting doubt on the elections risks discrediting the democratic process
# Tshwane receives an improved audit outcome
# And Golf: The Asian Tour plans to add another tournament to help players qualify for the Olympic Games

# Defend Our Democracy urges political parties to refrain from casting unwarranted doubt on the electoral processes and the Independent Electoral Commission. The civil society group launched its election watch campaign. It expressed concern about certain political parties, particularly the uMkhonto we Sizwe party, making alarming statements, including threats, and discrediting the IEC’s integrity. The group’s Andries Sibanyoni calls on parties to engage in constructive critique, leave election observation to civil society, and avoid actions that harm democracy:

# The audit outcome of the City of Tshwane has shown improvement from adverse in 2022 to qualified in 2023, indicating progress in governance. Mayor Cilliers Brink acknowledges the significant strides made, attributing the improvement to enhanced oversight and the efforts of chief financial official Gareth Mnisi. Brink says the goal is to obtain an unqualified audit for the current financial year, emphasising the commitment to restoring financial controls:

# Mediclinic has been cleared of intentional bill manipulation by an independent investigation. An inquiry found no deliberate effort to manipulate billing or coding, with errors deemed incidental and promptly addressed. Whistleblower claims prompted the investigation, initially focusing on six hospitals and later expanding. Mediclinic Southern Africa CEO Greg van Wyk acknowledged errors but stressed their minimal impact compared to transaction volume. The hospital group engages with medical aids regularly to address and mitigate errors.

# The Zimbabwean Ministry of Agriculture warns farmland planted with corn has shrunk by 12-percent due to scorching El Niño weather patterns, threatening the food staple. This decrease, from 1.96-million hectares to 1.73-million hectares, could lead to surging prices and social unrest as panic purchases and grain hoarding are expected. Economist Eddie Cross says the entire Southern African region experienced its driest February in decades, with Zambia declaring a national disaster due to the drought:

# Golf: The Asian Tour plans to add another tournament before June in order to help players qualify for the Olympic Games in Paris. Only 60 players will qualify and most countries may only send two players. The tour has only two tournaments left before June, namely in Saudi Arabia and South Korea. The head of the tour’s international series, Rahul Singh, says they are working actively on organising another one before the Olympic golf rankings are finalised on the 17th of June.

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 18-rand-68-cents and the euro at 20-rand-44-cents. One British pound costs 23-rand-91-cents and Bitcoin trades at 72-thousand-762-dollars-90-cents. Gold sells at two-thousand-165-dollars-68-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 83-dollars-67-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….