News 09:00

BULLETIN 13 April 9 am

Good morning. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# Elon Musk claims Starlink was offered a bribe to launch in South Africa
# The FF Plus says regional trade restrictions jeopardise agriculture, job creation, and stability
# And, the UK says it won’t be involved in the US blockade of the Strait of Hormuz

# Multibillionaire Elon Musk claims his satellite internet company, Starlink, was given the opportunity to bribe its way to a telecoms licence in South Africa, by pretending a black person ran the company’s local entity. The country’s Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment policies require foreign-owned telecommunications licenses to sell 30-percent of the equity in their local subsidiaries to historically disadvantaged groups. In a series of posts on X, Musk claimed that Starlink is being denied an operating licence because he is not black. He added that he refused to be bribed based on principle.

# The Freedom Front Plus says the trade restrictions imposed by Namibia, Botswana and Mozambique on South African agricultural exports jeopardise the country’s agricultural sector and undermine regional trade and economic stability in Southern Africa. Approximately 17-percent of South Africa’s agricultural exports headed for the Southern African Customs Union region last year. The FF Plus’s Jaco Mulder says the restrictions also place thousands of jobs in the agricultural and logistics sectors at risk:

# ActionSA leader and Johannesburg mayoral candidate, Herman Mashaba, has expressed concern at the credit rating outlook downgrade of the City of Johannesburg. The Global Credit Rating Company cited material uncertainty in the metro’s audit process, after failing to publish its annual financial statements. ActionSA’s spokesperson, Omogolo Taunyane, says earlier this month, the Johannesburg Stock Exchange suspended the metro from trading over this matter, an escalation of the protracted misgovernance crisis:

# The UK government says it will not be involved in a blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. This comes after US president Donald Trump said the US Navy would be blockading the critical shipping route, and also interdicting every vessel in international waters that had paid a toll to Iran. The UK says it is urgently working with France and other partners to put together a wide coalition to protect freedom of navigation. It adds that the reopening of the Strait is urgently needed to support the global economy.

# Soccer: Eight-time champions Manchester City have reduced Arsenal’s lead at the top of the Premier League table to six points, with a game in hand. City beat Chelsea 3-0 at Stamford Bridge yesterday, with goals from Nico O’Reilly, Marc Guehi, and Jeremy Doku. Arsenal suffered a 2-1 defeat to Bournemouth on Saturday. City hosts the Gunners at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday. Meanwhile, relegation-threatened Tottenham Hotspur under new manager Roberto de Zerbi suffered a 1-0 defeat to Sunderland, while Nottingham Forest boosted their survival hopes with a 1-1 draw against Aston Villa.

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 16-rand-54-cents and the euro at 19-rand-33-cents. One British pound costs 22-rand-17-cents, and Bitcoin trades at 71-thousand-972-dollars. Gold sells at four-thousand-714-dollars-47-cents a fine ounce, and Brent crude oil is quoted at 98-dollars-62-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….