News 11:00
BULLETIN 1 March 11 am
Good morning. I am……..
In this bulletin:
# Change Starts Now pulls out of contesting the 2024 elections
# The Public Servants Association urges government to prioritise ethical infrastructure investments
# And tennis: Venus Williams, Caroline Wozniacki and Emma Raducanu get Miami Open wildcards
# The newly-formed Change Starts Now party has decided not to contest the general elections, a week after launching its manifesto. Leader, Rodger Jardine, says the recent Constitutional Court ruling and the barriers it imposes, means newly established political parties face a prejudicial logistical timetable to qualify for the May 29th ballot. The ConCourt declined to hear a challenge to the Electoral Amendment Act’s provision for the amount of signatures new parties need to register for the elections. Jardine says they will support political parties that share the same values and aspirations.
# The Public Servants Association urges government to refrain from using funds from the Government Employees’ Pension Fund to bail out struggling state-owned enterprises. The PSA strongly opposes using pension-fund money, emphasising the need to protect retirees’ financial stability. They advocate for investments in infrastructure projects to stimulate economic growth and job creation, stressing the importance of transparent and responsible governance practices. The association’s Claude Naiker calls for prudent and ethical investments to ensure a secure future for all:
# The DA in Gauteng says premier Panyaza Lesufi backtracking on his promise that motorists will not have to pay their e-toll debt, is not surprising. In January last year, Lesufi made headlines by stating that 6.9-billion-rand paid in e-toll bills would be refunded to those who had paid. The DA’s, Fred Nel, says it also appears that no agreement has been reached with the national government yet to scrap e-tolls:
# New Zealand’s Auckland District Court has ordered 115-million-rand to be paid in compensation to the victims of the White Island volcano disaster. In December 2019, 47 people were touring the volcano when it erupted, killing 22 people. Many of the survivors were badly burnt by searing gas and ash. Seventeen of the tourists who died were from Australia, with the others from countries including the US, Germany and China. The court found that four tour operators and the owner of the island, Whakaari Management, failed to ensure the safety of the tourists.
# Tennis: Three Grand Slam champions, American Venus Williams, Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki, and Britain’s Emma Raducanu, have been awarded wildcards for the Miami Open. Wozniacki, a finalist in Miami in 2017, returns for the first time since 2019, having taken a three-year break following the birth of her two children. The field will be led by world number one and 2022 champion Iga Swiatek of Poland and reigning Australian Open champion Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus. The tournament starts on the 17th of this month.
# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 19-rand-14-cents and the euro at 20-rand-71-cents. One British pound costs 24-rand-19-cents and Bitcoin trades at 61-thousand-665-dollars-64-cents. Gold sells at two-thousand-47-dollars-78-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 82-dollars-13-cents a barrel.
Stay tuned for more news………….