News 08:00

BULLETIN 8 December 8 am

Good morning. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# President Ramaphosa stresses the importance of expanding South Africa’s trade market
# The Afrika Mayibuye Movement wants to win an outright majority in the 2026 elections
# And cricket: The Proteas Women clinch the T20 series against Ireland with one game to spare

# President Cyril Ramaphosa says that amid the turbulent global trade environment and the steep rise in tariffs, the government is finding an appetite for South African goods in new markets. He addressed the Progressive Business Forum and the Progressive Citizens Forum Presidential gala dinner in Boksburg, Johannesburg, yesterday evening. This is ahead of the ANC’s four-day National General Council. Ramaphosa says expanding South Africa’s trade market is important:

# Afrika Mayibuye Movement president Floyd Shivambu says they will only enter a coalition government with partners who make reasonable demands. The party held its first national convention at the University of Johannesburg in Soweto over the weekend. The Afrika Mayibuye Movement plans to field candidates in the 2026 local government elections, using them as a stepping stone to the 2029 national and provincial polls. Shivambu says they will seek to win an outright majority in the local government elections:

# The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa will be marching to the office of the Presidency in Pretoria today, demanding that the government intervene urgently on the job losses affecting the chrome sector. The union says by December 31, Glencore will have cut two-thousand jobs; Almar Investments has retrenched over 538 workers, and Samancor has issued a section 189 notice where it states that it is contemplating retrenching five-thousand workers. Numsa says the government must be bold enough to declare a moratorium on retrenchments.

# Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the second phase of a US plan to end the war in Gaza was close, but cautioned several key issues still needed to be resolved. During the first phase of the current ceasefire agreement, Hamas released the last 20 living Israeli hostages in exchange for about two-thousand Palestinian detainees held by Israel. The militant group has also handed over all but one of the 28 bodies of hostages killed during the war. Netanyahu emphasised the disarmament of Hamas:

# Cricket: The Proteas Women defeated Ireland by 65 runs in the second T20 in Paarl, to clinch the three-match series 2-0 with a game to spare. Faye Tunnicliffe scored 51 as the hosts posted 201 for five in their 20 overs. In reply, Ireland was restricted to 136 for three with Chloe-Lesleigh Tryon taking two wickets for 24 runs. South Africa won the opening encounter by 105 runs. The third and final match will be played in Benoni on Wednesday, before the teams turn their attention to the ODI series.

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 16-rand-92-cents and the euro at 19-rand-72-cents. One British pound costs 22-rand-47-cents and Bitcoin trades at 91-thousand-310-dollars. Gold sells at four-thousand-211-dollars-28-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 63-dollars-66-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….