News 06:00

BULLETIN 18 September 6 am

Good morning. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# The DA holds a National Day of Action against Eskom’s tariff hike today
# The Auditor General highlights South African Airways’ financial woes
# And rugby: Etzebeth will equal Matfield’s record on Saturday

# The DA will stage a National Day of Action today across all nine provinces to protest against Eskom’s proposed 36-percent electricity tariff increase. This follows Eskom’s request for an additional eight-billion-rand make-up tariff. DA spokesperson Kevin Mileham says the increases are unaffordable and detrimental to South Africans. He emphasised that mass action precedes a crucial parliamentary debate on Thursday:

# Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs minister Velenkosini Hlabisa has called for investigations into municipalities accused of failing to pay employees’ pension fund contributions to third-party administrators. This includes Msunduzi and Mafube Local Municipalities. This follows complaints after the two-pot retirement system took effect. Hlabisa plans to ask Cogta MECs to investigate and emphasised that failure to pay pension contributions constitutes financial mismanagement and is a criminal offense.

# The Auditor General’s Office reports that South African Airways has faced severe financial and operational struggles in recent years. Auditor Thato Kunene told Parliament’s Standing Committee on Public Accounts that the government injected 38.1-billion-rand into the airline, of which 27.6-billion-rand was allocated to post-business rescue. He added that the airline has no loans allocated at the moment:

# At least nine people were killed including a child and over two-thousand were injured when several receiving devices known as pagers exploded across Lebanon. Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon, Mojtaba Amani, was among those injured in Beirut. The communication devices belonged to members of the Iran-backed Lebanese armed group Hezbollah. The Lebanese government has blamed Israel for the explosions. Hezbollah says this is the biggest security breach it has experienced in nearly a year of almost daily cross-border fire with Israel.

# Rugby: Eben Etzebeth will equal Victor Matfield’s record of 127 Test appearances if he takes the field against Argentina on Saturday. He will start on the bench with captain Salman Moerat and Ruan Nortjé picked as the locks to start. Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus has made 10 changes to his starting team. Ox Nché, Nortjé, Jasper Wiese, Handré Pollard, and Jesse Kriel are the only players who retain their starting positions.

# The financial indicators: The dollar trades at 17-rand-58-cents and the euro at 19-rand-56-cents. One British pound costs 23-rand-17-cents and Bitcoin trades at 60-thousand-202-dollars-45-cents. Gold sells at two-thousand-574-dollars-11-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 73-dollars-73-cents a barrel.

# And finally: ANC Gauteng chairperson Panyaza Lesufi says with the passing of former Public Enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan, the party has lost a real warrior, a strategist, and a fearless cadre. The party held a memorial service for Gordhan at the Johannesburg City Hall yesterday evening. He passed away last Friday in hospital. Lesufi says Gordhan never turned his back on the ANC, remaining loyal till the end:

Stay tuned for more news………….