News 15:00

BULLETIN 22 July 3 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# Ramaphosa urges immediate action on local governance service delivery challenges
# Gauteng Social Development allocates 2.1-billion-rand for NPOs
# And, cricket: India’s new coach believes Kohli and Sharma can still play until the 2027 one-day World Cup

# President Cyril Ramaphosa has emphasised the urgent need to address governance and oversight issues at local government level. Addressing Parliament, Ramaphosa stated that Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs minister Velenkosini Hlabisa will ensure municipalities receive the necessary support. He assures that efforts will focus on improving efficiency, tackling municipal debt and enhancing service delivery, with a focus on reliability and affordability:

# Gauteng Finance MEC Lebogang Maile has reinstated the provincial Social Development Department’s non-profit organisations’ budget of 2.1-billion-rand. Maile says this is an increase of 13-percent to accommodate new applications. He confirmed that 441-million-rand has been paid to NPOs, but thirteen remain unpaid due to non-compliance. He says applications for 23 NPOs are missing from the system:

# Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is on his way to Washington to deliver a landmark speech to the US Congress. Netanyahu calls the visit a very important trip that comes at a time of great political uncertainty, referring to US president Joe Biden’s decision not to seek re-election and as Washington pushes Israel to seek a ceasefire deal with Hamas. Israel’s longest-serving premier will on Wednesday become the first foreign leader to address a joint meeting of the two chambers four times, pulling ahead of Britain’s Winston Churchill.

# Cricket: India’s new head coach, Gautam Gambhir, believes veterans Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli can still represent the country in 2027’s one-day World Cup if they are fit. Kohli is currently 35 and Sharma 37. Both retired from T20s after India beat South Africa in the final of the World Cup last month. Gambhir, who played for India from 2003 until 2016, says Kohli and Sharma still have plenty to offer the game. But he realises it was entirely up to them to make that decision.

# The financial indicators: The dollar trades at 18-rand-25-cents and the euro at 19-rand-87-cents. One British pound costs 23-rand-61-cents and Bitcoin trades at 67-thousand-378-dollars-92-cents. Gold sells at two-thousand-403-dollars-30-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 82-dollars-21-cents a barrel.

# And finally, the United Nations says decisions political leaders take this year will be decisive whether a target to end AIDS as a public health threat by 2030 can be reached. Figures from 2023 show around 1.3-million new infections were recorded last year, an increase of 100-thousand compared to 2022, but a significant fall since the peak of 3.3-million in 1995. The long-term trend is still way off the target of 330-thousand new infections next year. Nearly 40-million people are living with HIV, the virus that can cause AIDS.

Stay tuned for more news………….