News 11:00

BULLETIN 6 August 11 am

Good morning. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# The Transport minister says the Road Accident Fund’s backlog is unsustainable
# My Vote Counts says elements of the Coalition Bill undermine democracy
# And Paralympic Games: Another eight names are added to Team SA

# Transport minister Barbara Creecy says the Road Accident Fund’s claims backlog is unsustainable from a financial and humanitarian perspective, and requires policy and administrative reform. Responding to a written parliamentary question, the minister revealed that as of the 19th of last month, the fund’s backlog was at 321-thousand-251 claims, and about 174-thousand-42 are four years and older. Last year, the fund paid 45.69-billion-rand in road accident claims. Creecy says there is an ongoing data analysis to drive monitoring and assist in the identification of claims for targeted settlement.

# My Vote Counts says it rejects the Municipal Structures Amendment Bill, also known as the Coalition Bill, as elements of it undermine democracy. The bill provides a legislative framework to guide the formation and management of coalition governments at local government level. My Vote Counts’ senior researcher, Joel Bregman, says the development of legislation to assist coalitions should not be an opportunity for those in power to consolidate and shrink political competition under the guise of wanting stability:

# Al Jama-ah president Ganief Hendricks says Johannesburg mayor Kabelo Gwamanda is going nowhere. This is despite the ANC’s Gauteng secretary, Thembinkosi Nciza, saying the mayor would be gone by the end of the week. He was installed last year, becoming Johannesburg’s fourth mayor since the 2021 local elections. Al Jama-ah has three seats in the 270-seat council. Hendricks says there is no agreement at all for Gwamanda to resign:

# A United Nations investigation has found that nine employees from its main agency for Palestinian humanitarian relief, UNWRA, may have been involved in the seven October Hamas-led attacks on Israel last year. About one-thousand-200 people were killed and over 200 were taken hostage to Gaza. UN deputy spokesperson, Farhan Haq, who did not specify what the precise involvement of the nine may have been, says they have all been fired:

# Paralympic Games: The South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee has added another eight names to Team SA’s squad for the Games in Paris, starting on the 28th of this month. Notable inclusions are double Grand Slam wheelchair tennis champion Kgothatso Montjane, and para-triathlete Kirsty Weir. The financial incentives will see gold medallists be awarded 400-thousand-rand, silver 200-thousand-rand and bronze 75-thousand-rand.  At the Tokyo Paralympics, South Africa ended with seven medals: four gold, one silver and two bronze.

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 18-rand-50-cents and the euro at 20-rand-23-cents. One British pound costs 23-rand-58-cents and Bitcoin trades at 55-thousand-725-dollars-66-cents. Gold sells at two-thousand-403-dollars-91-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 76-dollars-73-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….