News 06:00

BULLETIN 9 June 6 am

Good morning. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# The DA says minister Lamola must abandon black empowerment
# Helen Zille is considering becoming the DA’s mayoral candidate for Johannesburg
# And rugby: Evan Roos is called up to the Springbok training squad

# The DA is calling on International Relations and Cooperation minister, Ronald Lamola, to explain his continued promotion of the ANC’s failed economic transformation policies. The party says in his address to the Black Business Council summit on Thursday, Lamola made a rallying call for black professionals to defend the revolution. The DA’s Ryan Smith says policies such as Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment have been repeatedly proven to be the wrong legislative vehicle through which to achieve it:

# The EFF has written to Parliament Portfolio Committee on Justice chairperson, Xola Nqola, requesting an urgent meeting with the National Director of Public Prosecutions and Justice minister Mmamoloko Kubayi. The party says this follows alarming public statements made by NDPP advocate Shamila Batohi on the infiltration of the National Prosecuting Authority within the institution and that individuals with ulterior motives, both inside and outside the NPA are undermining the work of the prosecuting authority. The EFF says the implications of Advocate Batohi’s statement cannot be overstated.

# Forestry, Fisheries, and the Environment Minister Dion George is attending the third United Nations Oceans Conference in Nice, France, today. The conference seeks to accelerate global action to conserve and sustainably use the ocean, in support of Sustainable Development Goal 14: ‘Life Below Water’. The department’s spokesperson, Thobile Zulu-Molobi says this year’s conference theme is accelerating action and mobilising all actors to conserve and sustainably use the ocean with advancing multilateral ocean processes and ambition and scaling up financing for ocean sustainability and blue economies:

# DA Federal Council chairperson, Helen Zille, says she is considering contesting to become the next Johannesburg mayor after next year’s local government elections. According to weekend reports, she is in talks with her family regarding accepting the nomination. Zille was the DA leader from 2007 to 2015 and served as Western Cape premier for two five-year terms. She also served as mayor of Cape Town from 2006 to 2009. ANC regional secretary Sasa Manganye says the DA had an opportunity to govern Johannesburg, but they failed.

# California Governor Gavin Newsom has called the deployment of two-thousand National Guardsmen to Los Angeles over the weekend purposefully inflammatory, warning that it would only escalate tensions. President Donald Trump deployed the soldiers to LA amid unrest over Immigration Customs Enforcement raids in the county. Newsom criticised the immigration raids, accusing the Trump administration of sowing chaos so they could have an excuse to escalate. The White House says the raids are essential to halting and reversing the invasion of illegal immigrants.

# Rugby: Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus has added Evan Roos to the training squad preparing for the upcoming international window. The 25-year-old last played in the green and gold back in 2024, when he faced Portugal in Bloemfontein. Roos’ inclusion now extends the squad to 55 players, who assembled in Johannesburg yesterday. The Boks will kick off their season against the Barbarians in Cape Town on June 28. This will be followed by back-to-back Tests against Italy in Pretoria and Gqeberha and Georgia in Nelspruit in July.

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 17-rand-76-cents and the euro at 20-rand-27-cents. One British pound costs 24-rand-2-cents and Bitcoin trades at 105-thousand-706-dollar-10-cents. Gold sells at three-thousand-314-dollars-78-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 66-dollars-42-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….