News 11:00

BULLETIN 24 April 11 am

Good morning. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# The MK Party is seeking legal advice over the Constitutional Court’s directive in its case against the IEC
# The US Senate has passed a bill that could see TikTok banned in America
# And rugby: An injury could rule Kitshoff out for the Springboks’ Tests later this year

# The MK Party says it is seeking legal advice over the Constitutional Court’s directive, giving the party and former president Jacob Zuma until tomorrow to file answering affidavits in the Electoral Commission’s appeal. The IEC approached the ConCourt last week after the Electoral Court overturned its decision on Zuma’s ineligibility to take part in the elections because of his criminal conviction. The MK Party says the IEC is playing politics as it should not have lodged a motion to appeal in the first place.

Meanwhile, the Referendum Party says self-determination exercised in the form of Western Cape independence will create a safer and more prosperous future for all of the people of the province. The party launched its election manifesto on the R62 border crossing between the Western Cape and Eastern Cape. Leader, Phil Craig, says the mission is to force Western Cape premier Alan Winde to call a referendum on Western Cape independence, which he claims 68-percent of people in the province support:

# Solidarity is calling for the Employee Share Ownership Plan funding models to be revisited. This is an employee benefit plan that gives workers ownership interest in the company in the form of shares of stock. In the last year, the plans are estimated to have paid out at least 3.1-billion-rand in dividends. Solidarity’s Gideon du Plessis says the costs must not be recovered from employees’ dividends, and tax relief for participating employers should be investigated:

# The US Senate has voted to pass a bill that could see TikTok banned in America. The legislation gives Chinese parent company ByteDance roughly nine months to sell TikTok to a US-based company, or it will be banned from American app stores. The video-sharing app faces growing questions over the security of users’ data and its links to the government in Beijing. TikTok’s head of public policy for the Americas, Michael Beckerman, says they will approach the courts.

# Rugby: Two-time World Cup winner, Steven Kitshoff, might not recover in time for the Springboks’ Test series against Six Nations champions Ireland in July. He suffered a knee injury during Ulster’s Challenge Cup quarterfinal loss to Clermont, and has been ruled out of the remainder of the United Rugby Championship campaign. The 32-year-old prop has returned to South Africa to visit a knee specialist. Kitshoff will return to the Stormers next season.

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 19-rand-11-cents and the euro at 20-rand-43-cents. One British pound costs 23-rand-77-cents and Bitcoin trades at 66-thousand-820-dollars-85-cents. Gold sells at two-thousand-322-dollars-72-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 88-dollars-52-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….