News 09:00

BULLETIN 20 December 9 am

Good morning. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# Minister Lamola welcomes Botswana lifting the ban on vegetable imports
# Tshwane continues to accelerate the by-law inspections at spaza shops
# And an American government shutdown looms as a spending bill fails to pass in the House

# Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Ronald Lamola, has welcomed Botswana’s decision to gradually lift the ban on vegetable imports from South Africa. Botswana is a significant trade partner for South Africa, accounting for approximately 15-percent of South Africa’s total vegetable exports as of 2021. The ministry’s spokesperson, Chrispin Phiri, says at the time of the ban, the country’s vegetable exports to Botswana decreased by almost half to 272-million-rand in 2023:

# The DA says despite receiving a staggering 76-billion-rand bailout from the government, Eskom posted a pre-tax loss of 25-billion-rand, which ballooned to 55-billion-rand after tax. The party says the audit report, which notes that material uncertainty relating to the power utility’s ability to continue as a going concern, is of particular concern. The DA’s Kevin Mileham says the exorbitant electricity tariff hikes that will plunge millions of vulnerable citizens into energy poverty would be unnecessary if Eskom addressed operational inefficiencies and cost controls instead:

# The City of Tshwane says it will continue to conduct by-law inspections of spaza shops amid the decision by the government to extend the deadline for registration. The metro has recorded four-thousand-and-48 spaza shops as of the 17th of December. Mayoral committee member for Economic Development and Spatial Planning, Sarah Mabotsa, says they have received one-thousand-709 registrations were from South African spaza shop owners and one-thousand-569 from foreign nationals:

# A revised short-term spending bill to keep government services from shutting down failed to pass in the US House of Representatives. The bill needed a two-thirds majority to pass, but lawmakers rejected it with 174 in support and 235 against, including 38 Republicans. President-elect Donald Trump backed the bill. The latest bill would have extended government funding into March when Republicans will control both chambers of Congress. Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson says they will re-group and come up with another solution.

# Tennis: The governing body for professional men’s players, the ATP, confirmed it paid out 23.7-million-rand under its financial security programme this year. The money was distributed among 26 players. The programme guarantees a minimum income for some players among the top 250 in the world rankings who don’t earn huge sums of money like the top-tier players, and only depend on tournament earnings. The programme was started after Covid-19 when the season was temporarily halted, causing severe financial struggles for many players.

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 18-rand-41-cents and the euro at 19-rand-7-cents. One British pound costs 22-rand-98-cents and Bitcoin trades at 97-thousand-326-dollars-17-cents. Gold sells at two-thousand-597-dollars-78-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 72-dollars-41-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….