News 06:00

BULLETIN 23 July 6 am

Good morning. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# The Impeachment Committee extends the deadline for evidence leader nominations
# Solidarity urges the Reserve Bank not to overreact to the inflation spike
# And rugby: A strong Bok team will travel to Buenos Aires to play a quality Puma team

# Parliament’s Impeachment Committee has resolved to extend the deadline for political parties to nominate candidates for the appointment as an evidence leader. Following nominations from political parties, only four advocates on the shortlist are available to start immediately. They are Kate Hofmeyr, Vuyani Ngalwana, Ismail Jamie and Pule Seleka. Committee chairperson Makashule Gana says political parties want more time to widen the search for an evidence leader:

Meanwhile, EFF leader Julius Malema has rejected the view that an evidence leader nominated by a political party to lead the Impeachment Committee would necessarily be politically aligned with that party throughout the process. Malema has described the view, which was presented by the Patriotic Alliance, as illiterate:

# Trade union Solidarity has urged the South African Reserve Bank not to raise interest rates further when its Monetary Policy Committee meets this week. According to the union, June’s increase in inflation to five-percent was mainly caused by higher fuel prices linked to the conflict in the Middle East, rather than strong consumer demand. Solidarity’s Theuns du Buisson says another rate hike would do little to reduce inflation but could slow economic growth.

# The Nkabinde Inquiry has cleared the South Gauteng Director of Public Prosecutions, advocate Andrew Chauke, of all charges levelled against him by former NPA head Shamila Batohi. He was accused, among other things, of instituting racketeering charges against former KwaZulu-Natal Hawks boss Johan Booysen and members of the Cato Manor unit, and of his decision not to prosecute former Crime Intelligence head Richard Mdluli for murder. President Cyril Ramaphosa has stated that he is satisfied that there is no basis upon which to conclude that Chauke is unfit to hold office.

# A new study has found that about 77-thousand fewer children worldwide received US-supported HIV treatment in the year to October 2025 following changes to American foreign aid. The study, which comes ahead of Sunday’s AIDS 2026 conference in Brazil, found a 14-percent year-on-year decline in paediatric HIV treatment. Researchers say the sharpest drops were recorded in South Africa, Uganda, Kenya, Zambia and Haiti. The US State Department disputes the findings, saying fewer children are becoming infected with HIV.

# Rugby: Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus plans to take a strong team to Buenos Aires for next month’s one-off Test against Argentina. He says Los Pumas is a quality side which beat them in their last Test in Argentina in 2024, and they realise how tough it is to beat them at home. Erasmus will split the national squad in two soon, with one travelling to Argentina to play the Pumas on 8 August, while the rest will remain behind to start preparing for the All Blacks Test series.

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 16-rand-41-cents and the euro at 18-rand-72-cents. One British pound costs 21-rand-94-cents and Bitcoin trades at 65-thousand-990-dollars. Gold sells at four-thousand-121-dollars-25-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 90-dollars-18-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….