News 09:00

BULLETIN 13 May 9 am

Good morning. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# ActionSA says a vote for the DA is a vote for dysfunction
# The MK Party is concerned about the collapse of the National Lotteries Commission
# And the UN says the entire Gaza population is at risk of famine

# ActionSA says voting for the DA in the 2026 local government elections is not a protest vote; it is a vote for dysfunction, collapse, and political grandstanding. The party’s Funzi Ngobeni says that in 2014, Helen Zille told South Africans not to waste their votes on smaller parties, and a decade later, she is still singing the same tune. Ngobeni says the idea of the DA as the smart vote no longer holds up to the lived experience of the very people it seeks to convince:

# The MK Party says the decline of the National Lotteries Commission represents far more than the mismanagement of a public institution; it’s a betrayal of public trust. It says it has written to minister of Trade, Industry and Competition, Parks Tau, to express dissatisfaction regarding the imminent collapse of the National Lotteries Commission, but he has failed to respond. It adds that of particular concern is the 4.3-billion-rand sitting idle in the NLC reserves, funds that belong to South Africans, especially the poor and unemployed.

# Gauteng Finance and Economic Development MEC, Lebogang Maile, says while the provincial government has underspent its budget by 1.8-billion-rand, only 85-million-rand is at risk of being forfeited to the National Treasury. The provincial government’s final budget for the 2024/2025 financial year was 168.76-billion-rand. By year-end, it had spent 166.97-billion-rand, which is 99-percent of the budget. Maile says that of the 1.8-billion-rand unspent, 1.4-billion-rand came from the provincial equitable share, with the rest coming from conditional grants:

# A UN report by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification says Gaza’s population of around 2.1-million Palestinians is at “critical risk” of famine and faces “extreme levels of food insecurity” as an Israeli blockade on humanitarian aid continues. According to the report, the two-month ceasefire between Israel and Hamas led to an improvement, but renewed hostilities and the current Israeli blockade had reversed the situation. It says some 244-thousand people are currently experiencing catastrophic levels of food insecurity and calls for urgent action to prevent the increasing risk of famine.

# Tennis: World number one Jannik Sinner is through to the last 16 of the Italian Open, following his 6-4, 6-2 victory over Dutch lucky loser Jesper de Jong. Sinner’s win maintains a bid to end a 49-year wait for an Italian winner of the men’s tournament in Rome. Sinner’s compatriot Matteo Berrettini was trailing Norwegian Casper Ruud, 7-5, 2-0, before he retired with injury. In the women’s draw, world number one Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus, American Coco Gauff, and Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina are through to the quarterfinals.

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 18-rand-25-cents and the euro at 20-rand-28-cents. One British pound costs 24-rand-8-cents and Bitcoin trades at 102-thousand-256-dollars. Gold sells at three-thousand-236-dollars-48-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 64-dollars-54-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….