News 08:00

BULLETIN 13 November 8 am

Good morning. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# The GOOD Party says unemployment remains stubbornly high
# A former apartheid police officer pleads guilty to murdering a student activist
# And Elon Musk will be part of Trump’s administration

# The GOOD Party says that although any improvement in South Africa’s unemployment rate should be celebrated, the reality is that the number remains stubbornly high. The unemployment rate decreased marginally by 1.4 percentage points to 32.1-percent in the third quarter of this year. Eight million citizens are still unemployed. GOOD’s secretary general, Brett Herron, says the government has no choice but to implement a Basic Income Grant:

Meanwhile Cosatu says the slight dip in the unemployment rate is a welcome reprieve, coming on the back of three consecutive quarters of job losses. About 294-thousand more people were employed in the third quarter of this year. Cosatu’s, Matthew Parks, says unemployment remains dangerously high among young people. He says the private sector needs to come to the party by halting the flood of retrenchments and seek alternatives:

# Former apartheid-era police officer, Johan Marais, has pleaded guilty to the murder of student activist Caiphus Nyoka in 1987. He appeared in the High Court in Pretoria yesterday. In his plea, Marais said Nyoka was opposed to the apartheid government and his involvement in educational and local politics resulted in him being identified as a threat. Marais is out on five-thousand-rand bail with conditions. This is one of the cases that was referred to the National Prosecuting Authority by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

# US president-elect Donald Trump has announced that billionaire Elon Musk and former Republican primary candidate Vivek Ramaswamy will lead a new Department of Government Efficiency in his second administration. Trump says the two will pave the way for his administration to dismantle government bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies. He has also picked Fox News host and army veteran, Pete Hegseth, as Defence Secretary and South Dakota governor Kristi Noem to lead the Department of Homeland Security.

# Tennis: World number one Jannik Sinner has made it two wins in a row at the ATP Finals, moving him closer to the semifinals in Turin, Italy. In front of his home crowd, he saw off American Taylor Fritz, 6-4, 6-4. In the other Ilie Nastase Group match, Russian Daniil Medvedev, who lost his opening match on Sunday, defeated Australia’s Alex de Minaur, 6-2, 6-4. Sinner says he knew Fritz was going to be aggressive, and he was prepared:

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 18-rand-7-cents and the euro at 19-rand-20-cents. One British pound costs 23-rand-4-cents and Bitcoin trades at 87-thousand-520-dollars-1-cent. Gold sells at two-thousand-610-dollars-21-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 72-dollars-9-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….