News 08:00

BULLETIN 19 November 8 am

Good morning. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# Minister Chikunga says a holistic approach is needed to address gender-based violence
# Minister Ramokgopa suspends a full-time Nersa member
# And Donald Trump’s pick for attorney general allegedly paid two women for sexual favours

# Minister of Youth and Persons with Disabilities, Sindisiwe Chikunga, says a long-term holistic approach is needed to curb gender-based violence. The minister received the first South African National Gender-Based Violence Prevalence Study on Monday. The study revealed that 14.6-percent of women with disabilities indicated they had experienced intimate partner violence, while 33.1-percent of all women aged 18 years and older had experienced physical violence in their lifetime. Chikunga says the findings of the study should serve as a call for immediate action:

# Electricity and Energy minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa has suspended energy regulator Nersa’s full-time member for electricity Nhlanhla Gumede. The suspension is pending the outcome of an independent inquiry into alleged transgressions. Gumede’s suspension comes three months after he stated that rapidly increasing electricity tariffs are the result of Nersa’s inappropriate pricing methodology, which is linked to outdated legislation. This prompted the regulator to issue a statement distancing itself from Gumede’s utterances. Nersa is currently holding countrywide public hearings about Eskom’s quest for a 36-percent tariff increase.

# Rise Mzansi says it supports Gauteng MEC for Agriculture and Rural Development, Vuyiswa Ramokgopa’s efforts to investigate corruption and mismanagement in agricultural projects. The party welcomed Ramokgopa’s probe into the Farmyard container stores project, which has already cost the province 28-million-rand. Rise Mzansi’s Gugu Ndima says the investigation will focus on uncovering the true cost of the project, determining if original goals were met, and assessing the operational status of the containers:

# Two women testified to the US House Ethics Committee that they were paid for sexual favours by former Republican congressman Matt Gaetz. This is according to their attorney Joel Leppard. Gaetz, who has denied the allegations, has been nominated by president-elect Donald Trump to serve as attorney general in his second administration. In an interview with CBS, Leppard said that one of the women testified that she saw Gaetz at a house party in 2017 having sex with a 17-year-old girl:

# Soccer: The Confederation of African Football has unveiled the top five nominees in the men’s seven categories for the CAF Awards next month. Bafana Bafana goalkeeper Ronwen Williams has been nominated for three awards including Player of the Year and Goalkeeper of the Year. Bafana Bafana coach Hugo Broos has been nominated for Coach of the Year, while the national team is also up for the Team of the Year award. Meanwhile, on the domestic front, Mamelodi Sundowns is nominated for the African Club of the Year award.

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 17-rand-92-cents and the euro at 18-rand-99-cents. One British pound costs 22-rand-73-cents and Bitcoin trades at 91-thousand-459-dollars-2-cents. Gold sells at two-thousand-624-dollars-39-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 73-dollars-35-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….