News 17:00

BULLETIN 25 January 5 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# The repo rate remains unchanged
# Youth Capital says internships can bridge the gap between employers and jobseekers
# And tennis: Aryna Sabalenka is also an avid super car enthusiast

# The Reserve Bank’s Monetary Police Committee decided to keep the repo rate unchanged at 8.25-percent. This means commercial banks’ prime lending rate remains at 11.75-percent.

# Youth Capital advocates for public employment programmes and internships as solutions to bridge the gap between inexperienced job seekers and employers. This aligns with president Cyril Ramaphosa’s call for employers to consider hiring individuals lacking work experience. Youth Capital project lead, Kristal Duncan, emphasised to Newzroom Afrika that internship programmes offering pathways to employment could effectively address unemployment issues:

# National Police commissioner Fannie Masemola presided over the destruction of drugs worth 90-million-rand in Cape Town today. The drugs, including tik, cocaine and mandrax, were seized during operations in the Western and Eastern Cape. This marks the fourth drug destruction this financial year, totalling close to a billion-rand. Police spokesperson Athlenda Mathe says notable cases include the seizure of ten-million-rand’s worth of mandrax in Vredenburg, resulting in four arrests, and the destruction of tik worth 18-million-rand in Beaufort West:

# The genocide survivors group, IBUKA, has confirmed the retrieval of 120 victims’ remains from mass graves in a Rwandan village. Executive secretary Napthali Ahishakiye says volunteers unearthed the remains after a resident reported a potential mass grave. Investigations began last October when remains were found during construction work. Over 100-thousand genocide victims’ remains have been retrieved in Rwanda in the past five years. The 1994 genocide saw around one-million deaths, mostly from the Tutsi community, at the hands of Hutu extremists.

# Tennis: World number two, Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus, has another passion besides the game – she is an enthusiast of super cars. Her fleet reportedly includes a bright blue Lamborghini Aventador S Roadster worth 7.5-millon-rand, with a top-speed of 350 kilometres an hour. She also owns a Mercedes-Benz G-Class worth 4.3-million-rand, and a BMW which her mother drives. Sabalenka recently expressed interest in obtaining a Porsche. She has already won prize money of 386-million-rand, and will add to it this week after qualifying for the final of the Australian Open today.

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 18-rand-93-cents and the euro at 20-rand-54-cents. One British pound costs 23-rand-96-cents and Bitcoin trades at 39-thousand-828-dollars-96-cents. Gold sells at two-thousand-and-16-dollars-26-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 80-dollars-79-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….