News 13:00

BULLETIN 31 July 1 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# The Reserve Bank governor warns climate change is adding to South Africa’s financial pressure
# Green Connection welcomes TotalEnergies’ abandonment of two oil operations in South Africa
# And, Olympic Games: Smith and Corbett are through to the semifinals of the 200-metres breaststroke

# South African Reserve Bank governor Lesetja Kganyago has warned that climate change will likely have a negative effect on the economy in the coming years. Climate change events are becoming more frequent and more severe, as evident in the recent winter storms that lashed the Western Cape, Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal. Kganyago says as part of the effort to understand and mitigate climate change impacts, climate-related risk will increasingly feature as part of the bank’s stress-testing scenarios.

# Civil society organisation Green Connection has welcomed TotalEnergies’ announcement to abandon two offshore oil and gas operations in South Africa. A subsidiary of TotalEnergies owns a 45-percent stake in a block off the southern coast where the fields, Brulpadda and Luiperd, were discovered. Green Connection’s Lisa Makaula says investments in fossil fuels that cause climate change must become a thing of the past, as there were sufficient reserves for the transition to sustainable energy:

# AmaZulu King Misuzulu kaZwelithini pledges to enhance KwaZulu-Natal’s economy through tourism, cooperative governance, and crime prevention. At the legislature’s seventh administration opening, he condemned gang violence and gender-based violence, urging a unified approach to solve residents’ challenges. The king calls on the province’s people to work together for development:

# Olympic Games: South Africans Tatjana Smith and Kaylene Corbett took the first two places in their heat in the 200 metre breaststroke. Smith, who won gold in the 100-metre breaststroke on Monday, touched the wall in two-minutes-21.57-seconds, with Corbett finishing in two-minutes-23.08. The semifinal will take place just before ten o’clock tonight, and the final tomorrow night just after nine. Pieter Coetzé of South Africa is also through to the semifinal of the 200-metre backstroke.

# The financial indicators: The dollar trades at 18-rand-25-cents and the euro at 19-rand-75-cents. One British pound costs 23-rand-41-cents and Bitcoin trades at 66-thousand-144-dollars-7-cents. Gold sells at two-thousand-421-dollars-83-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 80-dollars-6-cents a barrel.

# And finally, minister of Sport, Arts, and Culture Gayton McKenzie will deliver the keynote address at the Nelson Mandela Memorial Lecture at Freedom Park in Pretoria today. The lecture is themed, 30 Years of Democracy in South Africa, Unthreading the Genesis of the Government of National Unity. Nelson Mandela Museum CEO, Vuyani Booi, says the lecture will reflect on Mandela’s contributions to democracy and the formation of the first government of national unity.

Stay tuned for more news………….