News 12:00

BULLETIN 9 September 12 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# ActionSA wants an independent probe into Justice minister Simelane
# The Land Bank reaches a debt deal after a four-year default
# And, Paralympic Games: Team SA finished with six medals including two gold

# ActionSA is calling on president Cyril Ramaphosa to immediately suspend Justice and Constitutional Development minister, Thembi Simelane, following her appearance before Parliament’s Justice portfolio committee last Friday. She told the committee she had not received any improper benefits when she was mayor of Polokwane, despite admitting accepting a loan from VBS Mutual Bank to launch a coffee shop in Sandton. ActionSA’s Athol Trollip says an independent investigation into the minister must now be launched:

# South Africa’s Land Bank, which defaulted on its 40-billion-rand debt in April 2020, has reached an agreement with its international and local lenders on the restructuring of its debt. The bank has been negotiating a debt restructuring since its 2020 default. The agreement will involve all lenders swapping existing domestic medium-term notes for new liability solution notes, maturing in 2028. This resolution will unlock a five-billion-rand equity injection from the National Treasury. The Land Bank says the deal marks a significant step in its turnaround efforts.

# Gauteng is now the pollution hotspot of South Africa, as the country’s air quality has regressed since 2017. This is according to a report by the national air quality official, Patience Gwaze. The report shows that Gauteng had only 100 days of clean air last year, followed by Mpumalanga with 150 to 200 days. Gwaze says some factors contributing to air pollution in Gauteng include the transportation of pollution from Mpumalanga. She says the report could be skewed because of a lack of air quality monitoring equipment in some provinces.

# Paralympic Games: Team South Africa finished with six medals, two gold and four bronze, in Paris. Twenty athletes competed in seven sports, compared with the 34 who won seven medals at the Tokyo Games three years ago. The two gold medals were won by Mpumelelo Mhlongo in the men’s T44 100-meter and 19-year-old Simoné Kruger in the women’s discus throw F38. Donald Ramphadi and Lucas Sithole made history as the first South Africans to win a medal in wheelchair tennis at the Games, winning bronze.

# The financial indicators: The dollar trades at 17-rand-92-cents and the euro at 19-rand-81-cents. One British pound costs 23-rand-47-cents and Bitcoin trades at 55-thousand-152-dollars-77-cent. Gold sells at two-thousand-493-dollars-72-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 71-dollars-95-cents a barrel.

#  And finally, Western Cape premier Alan Winde says the renowned writer and poet James Matthews, who died last week, was an important part of the province and the country’s artistic fabric. Matthews was born in District Six in 1929. The provincial MEC for Cultural Affairs and Sport, Ricardo Mackenzie, says Matthews’s love of writing became evident from a young age, and some of his first pieces were published when he was just 17-years old:

Stay tuned for more news………….