News 07:00

BULLETIN 3 July 7 am

Good morning. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# The new Cabinet will be sworn in by Chief Justice Zondo today
# The police are following leads after the murder of Jacques Freitag
# And rugby: There are 20 Springbok World Cup winners in the matchday squad to face Ireland

# Chief Justice Raymond Zondo will preside over the swearing-in of new national executive members at the Cape Town International Convention Centre today. President Cyril Ramaphosa appointed a cabinet to accommodate the political parties in the national unity government. The DA, the second largest party in the government of national unity has 12 cabinet positions, the IFP with four, and the UDM, PA, PAC, Good Party, Freedom Front Plus and Al Jama-ah all have one.

# The National Treasury reports South Africa aims to exit the global dirty money watchlist by June 2025. The country has until February 2025 to address 14 remaining issues flagged by the Financial Action Task Force. Despite progress on eight of 22 action items, challenges persist, including two upcoming reporting cycles. The Treasury emphasises the need for substantial improvements to meet the June 2025 deadline.

# The National Energy Regulator of South Africa will appeal a High Court order regarding the processing of licensed electricity distributors’ tariff applications for the 2024/25 financial year. Spokesperson Charles Hlebela says NERSA’s decisions remain in effect, pending the appeal outcome, allowing distributors to implement the approved tariffs from 1 July 2024:

# Gauteng police say they are following multiple leads after the discovery of the body of former high-jump world champion Jacques Freitag. The 42-year-old, who had been missing since last month, was found with gunshot wounds near the Zandfontein cemetery in Pretoria West. A murder case has been opened. Freitag won world championships at youth, junior, and senior levels. He took gold in the high jump at the 2003 World Championships in Paris.

# Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban says a ceasefire in Ukraine could help speed up peace negotiations with Russia. Orban, who is one of the most supportive European leaders of Russian president Vladimir Putin, visited Kyiv for talks with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy. He suggested that a quick ceasefire could accelerate peace talks. Orban says Hungary would be at Ukraine’s disposal in its current role as rotating president of the European Union Council, stressing that peace was important for all of Europe.

# Rugby: Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus has named an experienced starting lineup to face Ireland at a sold-out Loftus Versfeld on Saturday. There are 20 World Cup winners, 15 in the starting line-up including captain Siya Kolisi, and a further five on the bench in the matchday squad. Erasmus says they have opted for a six-two split between forwards and backs on the bench, with Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu featuring ahead of Manie Libbok:

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 18-rand-59-cents and the euro at 19-rand-97-cents. One British pound costs 23-rand-58-cents and Bitcoin trades at 61-thousand-432-dollars-68-cents. Gold sells at two-thousand-328-dollars-52-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 86-dollars-56-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….