News 08:00

BULLETIN 15 August 8 am

Good morning. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# Minister De Lille says the precautionary suspension of the SA Tourism CEO is unlawful
# Donald Trump says there is a 25-percent chance his meeting with Putin won’t be a success
# And motorsport: Red Bull Racing cuts its remaining ties with Christian Horner

# Tourism minister Patricia De Lille says the precautionary suspension of the SA Tourism CEO Nombulelo Guliwe is unlawful. The Board of South African Tourism has placed Guliwe on precautionary suspension effective immediately, following serious allegations of misconduct. Under Guliwe’s tenure, SA Tourism was recently plunged into a tender scandal after allegations of irregularities in the awarding of a 100-million-rand tender to Pomme Express. De Lille says the board cannot suspend Guliwe as there is no chairperson or deputy chairperson:

# Sakeliga and the National Employers’ Association of South Africa will appear in the High Court in Pretoria today to challenge the new employment equity quotas. The organisations argue that the race and gender-based quotas, set to begin next month, were introduced without proper consultation and will be costly and difficult for businesses to implement. They are seeking urgent legal relief to stop the implementation of these quotas.

# Tshwane mayor Nasiphi Moya says the latest quarterly labour force survey confirms that the metro has made significant progress over the past year in improving job creation and reducing unemployment. From quarter two in 2024 to quarter two this year, Tshwane accounted for 71-thousand of the 83-thousand new jobs created in Gauteng. The mayor’s spokesperson, Samkelo Mgobozi, says this is an extraordinary 85-percent share of the province’s employment growth:

# US president Donald Trump says there is a 25-percent chance that today’s meeting with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, will not be successful. The two leaders will meet for the first time in six years in Alaska. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has been excluded from the talks, but has warned that any resolutions made in his absence will be meaningless. Trump has insisted that he will not let Putin get the better of him in the meeting:

# Motorsport: Red Bull Racing has severed its last formal links with Christian Horner, removing him as a director of the two main companies behind its Formula 1 operations. The 51-year-old was removed from his position as Red Bull team principal and CEO last month, marking the end of his 20-year reign at the helm. Documents filed with Companies House, the official keeper of business records in the UK, show Horner has been removed from the boards of both Red Bull Racing and Red Bull Technologies.

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 17-rand-58-cents and the euro at 20-rand-50-cents. One British pound costs 23-rand-82-cents and Bitcoin trades at 119-thousand-066-dollars. Gold sells at three-thousand-340-dollars-56-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 66-dollars-32-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….