News 17:00

BULLETIN 18 July 5 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# The Labour Party loses an urgent bid to halt the national dialogue
# iffany Meek pleads not guilty to murdering her son Jayden-Lee
# And soccer: Snoop Dogg now co-owns a club in Wales

# The High Court in Pretoria has dismissed the Labour Party’s urgent attempt to stop the upcoming national dialogue, set to begin on 15 August. The party had argued that president Cyril Ramaphosa overstepped his powers and that the 700-million-rand project lacked legal backing. The court found Ramaphosa acted within his constitutional mandate to promote national unity, with no proof of exclusion, harm, or unlawful spending. The application was dismissed but no order was made on costs.

# Tiffany Meek has pleaded not guilty to the murder of her eleven-year-old son, Jayden-Lee, at the Roodepoort Magistrate’s Court in Gauteng. The Grade 5 learner died from blunt force trauma and his body was found bruised at their Fleurhof apartment in Johannesburg. Meek broke down in court as prosecutors detailed the case, and claimed that she’s being framed. The Meek family calls for justice and healing, and urges the public not to target the accused’s relatives. The matter is back in court on Monday.

# Employment and Labour minister, Nomakhosazana Meth, says the government is building a whole-of-government and whole-of-society approach to tackle unemployment. Addressing the National Council of Provinces during her budget vote, Meth called for urgent action, especially on youth employment. She said over 79-percent of funded vacancies have been advertised, and the goal is to reduce the vacancy rate to 12-percent by year-end, as the department has been allocated four-billion-rand for the 2025/26 financial year:

# Statistics South Africa says there’s been a notable drop in civil debt cases. In the three months ending in May this year, civil summonses issued for debt fell by 17-percent, while the number of civil judgments recorded dropped by 20-percent compared to the same period last year. Stats SA’s Onica Mushwana says the figures point to a slowdown in debt-related legal action across the country:

# Soccer: Snoop Dogg has become co-owner of Championship Welsh side Swansea City in an unlikely alliance between the world of rap and football. The 53-year-old American musician joins former Real Madrid stalwart and Croatia World Cup finalist Luka Modric in the club’s ownership structure. Snoop Dogg made a surprise appearance on the club’s social media channels last week, modelling their new home jersey, and the club announced now he has become an investor. His involvement comes after American businessmen Brett Cravatt and Jason Cohen took over the club last November.

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 17-rand-67-cents and the euro at 20-rand-62-cents. One British pound costs 23-rand-80-cents and Bitcoin trades at 118-thousand-841-dollars. Gold sells at three-thousand-357-dollars-84-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 69-dollars-37-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….