News 09:00

BULLETIN 23 July 9 am

Good morning. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# Saftu says the Department of Higher Education is irresponsible for underspending 580-million-rand
# The DA in Gauteng is concerned about a shortage of African Horse Sickness vaccines
# And tennis: Vondrousova and Hurkacz withdraw from the Olympics due to injury

# The South African Federation of Trade Unions has accused the Department of Higher Education of being irresponsible, after returning 580-million-rand in unspent funds to the National Treasury. This was during former minister Blade Nzimande’s tenure. The money could have funded a total of nine-thousand-and-71 students for one academic year. Simultaneously, the department paid seven-million-rand annually to 30 suspended employees. Saftu’s spokesperson, Trevor Shaku, says this underspending is mismanagement by the department:

# The Competition Commission has been given the green light to proceed with the prosecution of Sasol on allegations of excessive pricing of natural pipe gas. This comes after the Constitutional Court dismissed Sasol’s application for leave to appeal, in a case investigating claims that it engaged in gas price gouging for almost a decade. Preliminary findings by the commission suggest that the chemicals and energy company charged markups of up to 72-percent. Sasol says it is considering the most appropriate way forward.

# The DA in Gauteng has expressed concern that horse breeders and owners are once again facing a critical shortage of African Horse Sickness vaccines. Recently only 120 vaccine doses have been released. The AHS vaccine is exclusively produced by Onderstepoort Biological Products, a state-owned enterprise responsible for manufacturing essential veterinary vaccines in the country. The DA’s, Bronwynn Engelbrecht, says the current shortage can be attributed to typical problems experienced with SOEs like production and logistical challenges:

# Hungary has described the European Union’s decision to move its next meetings of foreign and defence ministers from Budapest to Brussels as completely childish. This move is over Hungary’s prime minister Viktor Orbán’s stance on the war in Ukraine. He claimed recently that the union was pursuing a pro-war policy with its support for Ukraine. European Council president Charles Michel has rejected Orbán’s claims, saying Russia is the aggressor and Ukraine is the victim exercising its legitimate right to self-defence.

# Tennis: Reigning Olympic silver medalist Marketa Vondrousova will miss the upcoming Games in Paris due to a hand injury. She was expected to play singles as well as doubles with Karolina Muchova as a part of a Czech squad that also includes new Wimbledon champion Barbora Krejcikova. Meanwhile, world number seventh Hubert Hurkacz of Poland is also out of the Olympics, due to a knee injury he sustained at Wimbledon. The Olympic tennis competition at Roland Garros begins on Saturday.

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 18-rand-24-cents and the euro at 19-rand-87-cents. One British pound costs 23-rand-59-cents and Bitcoin trades at 67-thousand-410-dollars-39-cents. Gold sells at two-thousand-398-dollars-97-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 82-dollars-39-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….