News 15:00

BULLETIN NEWS AGENCY 14 August 3 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# Ramaphosa and business leaders forge a stronger economic partnership
# Spain probes a Katy Perry video over protected sand dunes            
# And, tennis: Jannik Sinner shrugs off an injury concern ahead of his Cincinnati opener

# President Cyril Ramaphosa has partnered with business leaders to drive economic growth and job creation. The collaboration will accelerate reforms in energy, transport, logistics, and crime over the next 12 to 18 months, with key achievements including reduced load-shedding and improved energy capacity. Future priorities include energy sector reform, enhancing transport logistics, and removing South Africa from the Financial Action Task Force’s grey list. The focus will now shift to structural reforms, targeting three- to five-percent gross domestic product growth by 2030. 

# Deputy minister of Finance David Masondo warns that high unemployment rates prevent many South Africans from entering retirement. Speaking at the Old Mutual Thought Leaders Forum in Johannesburg, Masondo emphasised the need for security in retirement savings, calling for transformation within the retirement system. He calls for ongoing dialogue and improved retirement outcomes for all South Africans:

# The EFF says South Africa must protect both emerging and established industries through strategic measures such as increasing tariffs. This is required to guard against foreign competition and will provide targeted subsidies to boost black entrepreneurship, particularly women and the youth. The EFF’s Mbali Dlamini says the persistence of gender disparity in unemployment rates exposes the failure of policies and systems that are supposed to uplift and equalise:

# Officials in Spain are investigating singer Katy Perry for allegedly filming a music video in ecologically sensitive dunes in the Balearic Islands without permission. The video for her latest single Lifetimes shows the singer on the islands of Ibiza and Formentera. But scenes believed to have been filmed in the middle of the protected dunes on the uninhabited isle of S’Espalmador in Formentera have raised concern. The dunes on the small, privately owned island are of great ecological value.

# Tennis: World number one Jannik Sinner says he is feeling good physically and is excited to get his Cincinnati Open campaign underway. The 22-year-old Italian has struggled to shake off the injury he picked up in Madrid in May and has aggravated it during his quarterfinal defeat by Russia’s Andrey Rublev in Montreal. Sinner, who plays American Alex Michelsen in his opener today, says he is looking to gain confidence for the US Open, starting on the 26th:

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 18-rand-5-cents and the euro at 19-rand-90-cents. One British pound costs 23-rand-19-cents and Bitcoin trades at 60-thousand-971-dollars-73-cents. Gold sells at two-thousand-473-dollars-24-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 80-dollars-43-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….