News 12:00

BULLETIN 27 March 12 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# President Cyril Ramaphosa says government is eradicating corruption in the construction of houses
# The United Arab Emirates is pushing for an international task force to reopen the Strait of Hormuz
# And Olympics: Human rights groups criticise the International Olympic Committee’s new gender eligibility guidelines

# President Cyril Ramaphosa says government is serious about eradicating corruption that has delayed the construction of houses across the country. South Africa’s housing backlog currently stands at approximately 2.6-million units, affecting more than 12-million people. The Special Investigating Unit is probing widespread corruption in several projects across the country funded by the Housing Development Agency. Ramaphosa says the country is now entering a new phase of delivering human settlements:

Meanwhile, the minister of Human Settlements, Thembi Simelane, has called for urgent, large-scale collaboration between government, the private sector, and financial institutions to address this backlog. Simelane says the country is operating within a complex environment marked by rapid urbanisation, rising construction costs, infrastructure constraints and increasing climate-related risks:

# MultiChoice CEO Willington Ngewepe has assured DStv subscribers that subscription fees will not increase this year. In an interview with MyBroadband, he said his entity is directly responsible for determining the subscription fees paid by DStv customers across the South African market. Ngewepe stated that they appreciate the difficult circumstances that people are in, and they will not be having an inflation adjustment to pricing. He added that at most, subscribers could expect an email confirming that their DStv subscription fees will remain the same.

# The United Arab Emirates says it would participate in a multinational maritime task force intended to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. The narrow waterway has been effectively closed for almost four weeks due to the conflict in the Middle East. The Strait is the main conduit for about 20-percent of the world’s oil and natural gas and fertilisers. According to the Financial Times, the UAE is working on a United Nations Security Council resolution with Bahrain to provide any future task force with a mandate.

# Olympics: The Sport and Rights Alliance, ILGA World and over 100 other allied organisations have criticised the International Olympic Committee’s new gender eligibility guidelines. The policy guidelines mandate genetic sex tests for all athletes competing in its women’s categories, as well as blanket bans of people who identify as transgender, intersex or with sex differences. The organisations have described the guidelines as a blunt and discriminatory response that is not supported by science and violates international human rights law. They have called for the IOC to prioritise safety over politics.

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 17-rand-12-cents and the euro at 19-rand-72-cents. One British pound costs 22-rand-80-cents and Bitcoin trades at 68-thousand-436-dollars. Gold sells at four-thousand-445-dollars-61-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 102-dollars-34-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….