News 06:00

BULLETIN 2 May 6 am

Good morning. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# President Ramaphosa backs minister Godongwana
# The Public Service minister defends the public sector wage bill
# And the vehicle recovered in the Hennops River belonged to the three deceased constables

# President Cyril Ramaphosa says the now resolved budget impasse is not a cause for Finance minister Enoch Godongwana to be removed. There have been calls for the minister to be fired over the budget impasse that will now see him tabling the budget for the third time on May 21st, an unprecedented move since 1994. Speaking on the sidelines of Cosatu’s Workers Day commemoration in Mpumalanga on Thursday, Ramaphosa says the silver lining in the impasse was a more transparent budget process:

# Public Service and Administration minister Inkosi Mzamo Buthelezi says the public service wage bill is not the sole challenge to the country’s health fiscus. The public sector wage bill is currently about 724-billion-rand. The minister says the wage bill has declined as a share of consolidated spending from 35.7-percent in 2013/2014 to 32.1-percent in 2022/2023. Buthelezi says the government is now ensuring that the wage negotiations process is aligned with planning and budget cycles to ensure that the outcomes are within the national fiscus.

# Police have confirmed that the white VW Polo retrieved from the Hennops River in Centurion belonged to the three Free State police officers who died earlier this week. Constables Cebekhulu Linda, Keamogetswe Buys, and Boipelo Senoge went missing after travelling from Bloemfontein to their deployment area in Limpopo last week. Their bodies were retrieved from the river on Tuesday. Police Commissioner Fannie Masemola says a thorough investigation will now be conducted:

# The Department of Correctional Services national commissioner, Makgothi Thobakgale, says the post-mortem examination concluded that inmate Quinton Fortuin died as a result of multiple blunt force injuries. On 16 February this year, Fortuin launched an unprovoked attack on correctional official Lwandile Manise at Goodwood Correctional Centre in Cape Town. Thobakgale says in response to the emergency, additional officials arrived and force was used to restrain the offender. Fortuin sustained injuries and was transported to Karl Bremer Hospital, where he was declared deceased:

# Tesla’s chair Robyn Denholm has rejected a Wall Street Journal report that the company’s board has begun a search process for a new CEO to replace Elon Musk. Denholm said in a post on Tesla’s official X account that the claim was absolutely false, and the board is highly confident in Musk’s abilities. Tesla’s stock price tumbled as much as 45-percent this year. Although Musk has publicly advocated for lower tariffs he appears to have made little headway with Trump, and Tesla’s China sales are under threat.

# Rugby: Veteran utility forward Deon Fourie has been given a one-year contract extension with the Stormers, despite an injury that has brought a premature end to his season. The 38-year-old loose forward had ankle surgery earlier this month after getting injured in the United Rugby Championship clash against Connacht in Cape Town on 19 April and will not play again in this campaign but has been retained for the next. Fourie was the oldest debutant in South Africa’s history when he earned a first cap in 2022, three months shy of his 36th birthday.

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 18-rand-56-cents and the euro at 20-rand-95-cents. One British pound costs 24-rand-62-cents and Bitcoin trades at 96-thousand-376-dollar-70-cents. Gold sells at three-thousand-240-dollars-13-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 61-dollars-73-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….