News 11:00

BULLETIN 3 October 11 am

Good morning. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# Sixty percent of the population believes the government of national unity is working well
# The UK prime minister warns the Middle East is on the brink of an outright war
# And cricket: More woes for Pakistan as captain Babar Azam quits

# Sixty percent of South Africans believe the government of national unity is working well, while 28-percent feel it’s performing poorly. This is according to a poll by the Social Research Foundation, which also tracked electoral support for parties inside the coalition government. It found support for the ANC and DA in particular had increased by up to ten-percent. The foundation’s Gabriel Makin says one of the main reasons for the upswing in sentiment was that the government of national unity had effectively addressed the concerns of the middle class.

# Cosatu has condemned the DA’s call for the national minimum wage not to be increased to protect it from inflation. The party says while it recognises the good intentions behind raising the minimum wage, it believes it will serve only to worsen the country’s already extremely high unemployment rate. Cosatu’s Matthew Parks says this is an unashamed assault on the six-million farm, domestic, construction, cleaning, security, hospitality and other workers dependent upon the national minimum wage:

# The EFF in Gauteng is concerned about the unclear operational issues surrounding the scrapping of e-tolls in the province. MEC for Economic Development, Lebogang Maile, stated that users billed through the e-toll system would not be refunded, and those with outstanding e-toll payments are still legally obligated to settle those debts. The EFF says it firmly believes the 20-billion-rand debt incurred by the province was never the responsibility of motorists, adding that the decision to require users to pay outstanding e-toll debts is unreasonable.

# UK prime minister Keir Starmer has warned that the Middle East is on the brink of an outright war, which would be disastrous. This comes as Iran launched nearly 200 missiles into Israel on Tuesday evening, in retaliation for the air strike in the Lebanese capital of Beirut last Friday that killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. Starmer took part in a call with G7 leaders to condemn Iran’s strike on Israel. He says further escalation in the region must be prevented:

# Cricket: Pakistan’s limited-overs team is leaderless after captain Babar Azam resigned, compounding a management crisis experts say has badly affected the team’s international performance in all formats. Azam announced his resignation on his personal social media before an official Pakistan Cricket Board statement more than 12 hours later. Pakistan cricket has ploughed through four coaches, three board heads and four captains in the past two years, at the same time sliding down international rankings.

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 17-rand-34-cents and the euro at 19-rand-14-cents. One British pound costs 22-rand-84-cents and Bitcoin trades at 61-thousand-325-dollars-7-cents. Gold sells at two-thousand-655-dollars-83-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 74-dollars-86-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….