News 11:00

BULLETIN 20 May 11 am

Good morning. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# Transnet is confident it will meet its debt obligations
# Canegrowers welcome the exemptions to boost the local sugar market
# And rugby: A Six Nations match will be played on a Thursday for the first time next year

# Transnet is confident that will raise the required funding to meet its operational requirements and debt obligations for the rest of the year. Rating agency Moody’s has warned that the state-owned entity could run out of money within three months, unless the government steps in with a bailout. In December 2023, the government offered Transnet a 47-billion-rand guarantee facility to help it stay afloat. However, this funding has been fully exhausted. Transnet says it will meet its financial obligations in line with its funding plan.

# SA Canegrowers welcomes the proposed draft regulations from the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition that could help protect over a million livelihoods. The new regulations would allow retailers and food producers to negotiate directly with sugarcane growers to prioritise buying South African sugar instead of imports. The organisation’s vice-chairperson, Andrew Russell, says the government plan also aims to support new projects like making biofuels, helping local sugar growers have a better future:

# Cape Town mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis is calling on Finance minister Enoch Godongwana to ensure no cuts to municipal funding are proposed when he tables the national budget on Wednesday. The minister will attempt to table the budget for the third time after the two previous attempts were halted due to political and legal challenges. Hill-Lewis says over 107-million-rand was slashed from grant funding to Cape Town as part of nationwide cuts in 2023/2024:

# United Nations Humanitarian Affairs chief, Tom Fletcher, has welcomed the Israeli authorities’ decision to allow the delivery of limited aid to Gaza, after eleven weeks of blockade. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu says food deliveries would continue only until the military and private companies have set up hubs to distribute aid under a US-backed plan, rejected by the UN. The UN spokesperson, Stéphane Dujarric, says nine of their aid trucks have already been cleared to enter the southern Kerem Shalom crossing:

# Rugby: A Six Nations match will be played on a Thursday for the first time ever next year, when defending champion France will host Ireland on the fifth of February. The encounter was moved not to clash with the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics in Milan, Italy, the following day. The competition will feature only one rest weekend compared to the normal two. France must still confirm its home venues after it hadn’t received a satisfactory proposal to stay at the Stade de France in Paris.

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 18-rand-10-cents and the euro at 20-rand-39-cents. One British pound costs 24-rand-21-cents and Bitcoin trades at 105-thousand-647-dollars. Gold sells at three-thousand-212-dollars-50-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 64-dollars-98-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….