News 11:00

BULLETIN 25 April 11 am

Good morning. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# CASAC wants to join the Election Commission’s Constitutional Court appeal
# Ramaphosa extends the Defence Force’s deployment in Southern Africa
# And golf: McIlroy could possibly return to the PGA Tour’s policy board 

# The Council for the Advancement of the South African Constitution has applied to the Constitutional Court to be admitted as a friend of the court in the Electoral Commission’s appeal matter. The IEC wants the Electoral Court ruling allowing former president Jacob Zuma to contest a seat in Parliament to be set aside. Casac’s Lawson Naidoo says a consequence of the ruling was that despite the ConCourt’s decision in June 2021 sentencing Zuma to 15 months in prison, he was presently not disqualified from seeking election to Parliament.

# Union federation Saftu is urging government to penalise employers who fail to remit pension funds deducted from employees. This comes after the Financial Sector Conduct Authority published a list of approximately four-thousand-200 registered companies that have not remitted pension fund contributions totalling seven-billion-rand. Saftu’s Trevor Shaku says such non-compliance with the Pension Fund Act is not only a legal violation but also has significant socio-economic repercussions. He adds many workers rely on these funds for social relief after employment ends:

# President Cyril Ramaphosa has extended the deployment of one-thousand-495 South African National Defence Force members to combat acts of terrorism and violent extremism in various parts of Africa. The Presidency says the extension is for soldiers in Mozambique, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the Southern African Development Community Maritime Security Strategy, to address piracy in the Indian Ocean. The SANDF members have been deployed from the 16th of this month to the 31st of December, at an estimated cost of over 984-million-rand.

# Golf: Four-time major winner, Rory McIlroy, says he is willing to make a return to the PGA Tour policy board. He resigned in November last year, citing concerns over the time and energy he had to commit to the role. The Northern Irishman could replace Webb Simpson, who has reportedly offered his resignation and requested the former world number one take his place. McIlroy says he could help accelerate the progress of merger talks between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf:

# The financial indicators: The dollar trades at 19-rand-15-cents and the euro at 20-rand-53-cents. One British pound costs 23-rand-93-cents and Bitcoin trades at 64-thousand-303-dollars-1-cent. Gold sells at two-thousand-321-dollars-12-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 88-dollars-25-cents a barrel.

# And finally: One of the last works by Austrian painter Gustav Klimt, Portrait of Fraulein Lieser, has sold for around 615-million-rand at an auction in Vienna. The painting was considered lost but it recently emerged that an Austrian citizen had privately owned it. It is believed to depict one of the daughters of either Adolf or Justus Lieser, who were brothers from a wealthy family of Jewish industrialists. The im Kinsky Auction House says the painting is one of the most beautiful of Klimt’s last creative period.

Stay tuned for more news………….