News 07:00

BULLETIN 14 November 7 am

Good morning. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# Parliament hopes Danny Jordaan’s legal problems won’t destabilise SAFA
# StatsSA reveals a 0.8-percent decline in the manufacturing sector
# And cricket: India beat South Africa to lead the T20 series 2-1

# Parliament’s portfolio committee on Sport, Arts and Culture, says it hopes South African Football Association president Danny Jordaan’s legal problems won’t destabilise the association. He has been charged with fraud and theft after allegedly using about 1.3-million-rand of SAFA’s money for personal gain. Jordaan has been charged with two other people, the association’s chief financial officer Gronie Hluyo and journalist-turned-businessman Trevor Neethling. The committee says it hopes all of the uncertainties around Jordaan will be ventilated in an open court, and that justice will prevail.

# According to Statistics South Africa, the country’s manufacturing output fell by 0.8-percent in September, with the automotive sector largely responsible. This marks the second month of declining output, following a 1.2-percent drop in August. StatsSA’s Nicolai Claassen says production in motor vehicles, parts, and transport equipment fell by 18.7-percent, accounting for a significant portion of the overall decline:

# Telkom has secured a court order allowing it to raid a Johannesburg-based company accused of using stolen data to poach over one-thousand-300 of its customers. A franchise employee allegedly leaked client information to the third-party firm, which used it to lure clients away under false pretenses. Telkom’s raid, conducted with court officials, seized records and financial data to aid its ongoing investigation. According to News24, the telecoms giant has alerted affected customers and notified South Africa’s Information Regulator.

# AfriForum is urging Gauteng premier Panyaza Lesufi to conduct a thorough investigation into alleged corruption claims at the legislature. The legislature has agreed with the National Health and Allied Workers Union to drop fraud and corruption charges against 32 employees. They will now face lesser charges of negligence. The employees fraudulently claimed and were irregularly paid more than 335-thousand in travel and subsistence allowances in 2020. AfriForum’s, Charné Mostert, says an independent inquiry into this matter is needed:

# US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has reaffirmed America’s support for Ukraine in its fight against Russia’s aggression, and for its irreversible path to full Euro-Atlantic integration. He made the promise during a visit to Brussels on Wednesday. This is amid ongoing uncertainty over the stance of president-elect Donald Trump on Ukraine’s conflict with Russia. Blinken says they will continue to shore up everything they are doing for Ukraine in the months before Trump assumes the presidency again:

# Cricket: India defeated South Africa by eleven runs in the third T20 in Centurion, to take a two-one lead in the four-match series. Tilak Varma scored an unbeaten 107 off 56 balls as the visitors posted 219 for six after they were put into bat first. In reply, the Proteas were restricted to 208 for seven in their 20 overs with allrounder Marco Jansen scoring 54. Arshdeep Singh took three wickets. The final T20 of the series will be at the Wanderers tomorrow.

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 18-rand-26-cents and the euro at 19-rand-28-cents. One British pound costs 23-rand-17-cents and Bitcoin trades at 90-thousand-256-dollar-64-cents. Gold sells at two-thousand-563-dollars-73-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 72-dollars-3-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….