News 16:00

BULLETIN 19 November 4 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# South Africa pushes the G20 Critical Minerals Framework to the global stage
# Soccer: Barca finally returns to Camp Nou after an absence of two years
# And Pepkor and Investec are reportedly planning to create a zero-fee banking service

# South Africa is preparing to champion its G20 Critical Minerals Framework at the weekend’s leaders’ summit in Johannesburg. Mineral and Petroleum Resources minister Gwede Mantashe urged African countries to unite behind their mineral wealth.. He was speaker during a G20 Africa Critical Minerals Partnership engagement in Sandton, Johannesburg. Mantashe calls for the continent to shift from exporting raw minerals to driving value-added production. He emphasised to SABC News that cooperation was essential:

# Statistics South Africa says inflation rose for the second month in a row, reaching 3.6-percent in October, the highest in over a year. Food inflation eased to 3.9-percent, with slower increases in prices of vegetables, fruit, beverages, sugar and meat, although some basics like cereals, fish, oils and dairy became more expensive. Stats SA’s Patrick Kelly says North West had the highest provincial inflation at 4.3-percent, while the Eastern Cape was the lowest at 3.1-percent:

# The Department of Health’s National Essential Medicines List Committee has approved the inclusion of the recently registered injectable Lenacapavir on the Essential Medicines List. Lenacapavir is a revolutionary long-acting injectable drug that offers six months of protection with just two annual doses. The department’s spokesperson, Foster Mohale, says the inclusion of treatments like Lenacapavir on the list is crucial to encourage manufacturing of generic medicines to improve availability and affordability:

# Soccer: Spanish giants Barcelona will finally return to Camp Nou on Saturday after having to play elsewhere for the past two years while the famous stadium was being reconstructed. They will face Athletic Bilbao in a La Liga fixture. Camp Nou was closed after the 2022/23 season. The reopening happens a year after the original date, with the reconstruction costing over 30-billion-rand. The stadium will have a temporary capacity of 45-thousand, but will seat 105-thousand when the top tier is completed.

# The financial indicators: The dollar trades at 17-rand-15-cents and the euro at 19-rand-86-cents. One British pound costs 22-rand-50-cents and Bitcoin trades at 91-thousand-354-dollars. Gold sells at four-thousand-115-dollars-38-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 63-dollars-16-cents a barrel.

# And finally: Africa’s biggest sellers of clothing and mobile phones plans to open bank branches in South Africa that offer zero-fee services, using its six-thousand store network in the country to reach millions of lower-income customers. According to Bloomberg, Pepkor is likely to partner with Investec, though talks are underway and there’s no certainty a deal will be reached. The profits of the new venture, which is likely to be called “Pep Bank”, would be split between the retailer and Investec who focuses on high-net worth individuals in South Africa.

Stay tuned for more news………….