News 16:00

BULLETIN 11 November 4 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# The Lilian Ngoyi Street rehabilitation project in Johannesburg is only 22-percent complete a year after an explosion
# Namibia’s tourism industry faces financial decline
# And rugby: The Boks expect a different Test against England altogether after beating Scotland

# The Johannesburg metro has confirmed that the Lilian Ngoyi Street rehabilitation project in the CBD is 22-percent complete – a year after a devastating explosion. Mayoral committee member for Transport, Kenny Kunene, says the project has stalled, with dire consequences for road users, businesses and residents. So far, more than 17-million-rand has been spent out of the total of almost 180-million-rand allocated for the project’s completion. Kunene told SABC News the project was halted due to contractor issues:

Meanwhile, the City of Johannesburg has acknowledged it did not respond to a Promotion of Access to Information Act request from the DA, citing concerns over the Protection of Personal Information Act. The DA criticised City Power for alleged mismanagement amid Eskom’s threat to cut power due to a 6.3-billion-rand debt. Minister of Electricity and Energy, Kgosientso Ramokgopa, is set to meet with city leaders and Eskom to address the electricity bill issue as transparency concerns mount.

# The Hospitality Association of Namibia says the country’s tourism industry faces a significant financial decline, with some sectors seeing up to a 30-percent drop in business. The downturn is linked to rising crime rates, including robberies targeting tourists, and concerns over land reform. The association’s CEO, Gitta Paetzold, says businesses in Swakopmund are already reporting losses of up to 45-percent, and there are worries that the situation could get worse next year:

# Around 100 world leaders and heads of state are expected at the United Nations’ COP29 climate summit in Baku tomorrow and Wednesday amid warnings that 2024 is on track to beat temperature records. Fewer top leaders are making the trip to the Azerbaijani capital than went to COP28 in Dubai and the one before in Glasgow in 2021. Only four G20 leaders from the world’s major economies have so far confirmed their presence. They are Britain’s Keir Starmer, Italy’s Giorgia Meloni, Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey and Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman.

# Rugby: The Springboks are relocating from Edinburgh to London today after last night’s victory over Scotland at Murrayfield. Bok coach Rassie Erasmus says Saturday’s clash with England at Twickenham will be a different Test altogether as they will face a desperate team coming off consecutive losses to the All Blacks and the Wallabies in matches they could have won. Australia handed England their fifth loss in six Tests and the English slumped to seventh in the lastest world rankings – their worst ranking in eight years.

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 17-rand-83-cents and the euro at 19-rand-1-cent. One British pound costs 22-rand-98-cents and Bitcoin trades at 82-thousand-207-dollars-10-cents. Gold sells at two-thousand-665-dollars-31-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 72-dollars-70-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….