News 14:00

BULLETIN 24 November 2 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# The G20 presidency handover to the US will be low-key
# The Ukrainian president says the aggressor must pay for the war
# And cricket: The Proteas don’t enforce a follow-on after Jansen claims six Indian wickets

# The director general of International Relations, Zane Dangor, says South Africa will likely hand over the G20 presidency to the US in Pretoria tomorrow. On Saturday, minister Ronald Lamola noted that since the US designated only a junior embassy official, South Africa would match the level with an equivalent representative following US president Donald Trump’s absence from the summit in Johannesburg. Dangor told Newzroom Afrika there will be no formal ceremony:

# The Public Servants Association has sharply criticised the Government Employees Medical Scheme for its planned 9.8-percent contribution increase next year. The PSA represents over 245-thousand workers and pensioners. It says the hike is unfair and far higher than private schemes’ average of six-percent. It accuses GEMS of ignoring fraud and mismanagement while burdening members already struggling with rising living costs. The union warns it may intensify action, including mass protests, if the increase is not scrapped.

# The Cape Winelands District Municipality’s Fire Services has managed to contain several fires that have been burning over the weekend. The Matroosberg blaze above the Swaarmoed Pass, which was caused by lightning, has been fully contained. The fire line in the Goat’s Window and Melozhori areas has also been fully contained. The municipality’s Jo Anne Otto says there are currently two active fires:

Moving abroad:

# Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky says Kyiv will keep working with its partners on compromises to the proposed peace plan that would strengthen his country rather than weakening it. This follows yesterday’s talks between the US, Ukrainian and European Union representatives in Geneve to refine the 28-point peace plan proposed by US president Donald Trump. Zelensky told Sweden’s Parliament via video call that Russia as the aggressor must pay for the war it started. He adds a decision on the use of Russian assets was crucial.

# Cricket: South Africa didn’t enforce the follow-on after bowling India out for 201 – a first innings deficit of 288 runs. Marco Jansen, who scored 93 for South Africa, was the main destroyer with six wickets. Senuran Muthusamy earlier contributed 109 and the Proteas ended on 489. South Africa won the first Test in Kolkata, their first Test victory in India since 2010, and another victory will hand them a series victory in the country for the first time since 2000. The Proteas reached 26 without loss at stumps.

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 17-rand-31-cents and the euro at 19-rand-96-cents. One British pound costs 22-rand-69-cents and Bitcoin trades at 85-thousand-863-dollars. Gold sells at four-thousand-and-71-dollars-86-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 61-dollars-57-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….