News 06:00

BULLETIN 3 February 6 am

Good morning. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# The ANC is studying the Constitutional Court’s ruling on cadre deployment
# The British Foreign Secretary is calling on Israel to think before taking further action in Rafah
# And rugby, the United Rugby Championship resumes after three weeks with two local derbies

# The ANC has noted the Constitutional Court’s judgment on cadre deployment, saying it is a practice not exclusive to the ruling party. The ANC has five working days to hand over its cadre deployment records to the DA after the ConCourt dismissed its application for leave to appeal a lower court judgment on the matter. The ruling party must hand over the records of its cadre deployment committee since January first, 2013, when president Cyril Ramaphosa became chairperson. The ANC says it will study the judgement to ensure that it is adhered to accordingly.

# The DA accuses Eskom’s power stations of reaching a critical state, shutting down independently, and causing the recent escalation to stage six load-shedding. According to the party, the sudden drop in generation capacity is due to power stations nearing the end of their life capacity. Despite the introduction of Kusile units, the energy availability factor worsens, indicating a rapid decline in coal power station performance. The DA’s Samantha Graham-Maré dismisses ANC claims blaming renewables for the crisis:

# The tourism sector has criticised a recent Home Affairs notice asking foreign tourists to depart by the end of the month if visa renewals weren’t received by the 23rd. The notice raised concerns about economic damage and reputational risks. Southern African Tourism Services Association CEO David Frost highlighted risks to tourists from visa-free countries like the US and Britain. He says departures could harm job creation and the gross domestic product, as 8.5-million international tourists visited South Africa last year. This was a 50-percent increase from 2022.

# City of Tshwane mayor, Cilliers Brink, says the integrity management framework recently adopted by the council will allow the city manager to order lifestyle audits on officials. The city is hoping to collect at least a quarter of the 23.3-billion-rand owed to the metro by its customers by mid-year. Brink says they will look carefully at which supply chain function officials try to undercut or undermine its new systems and controls. He adds that they have a newfound understanding of the efforts that will be required to secure the future of Tshwane.

# UK Foreign Secretary, David Cameron, says Israel should stop and think seriously before taking further action in the southern city of Rafah in Gaza. The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza says 67 people were killed in Israeli airstrikes in Rafah on Sunday evening. The city is providing refuge to more than half of Gaza’s 2.3-million population who have fled fighting elsewhere. Cameron says the people in Rafah have nowhere else to go:

# Rugby: The United Rugby Championship resumes after three weeks this weekend, with two local derbies on the menu. The Lions will host the Bulls at Ellis Park in Johannesburg on Saturday afternoon, while the Sharks and the Stormers will do battle at King’s Park in Durban. Leinster is currently on top of the log of the 16 teams, followed by Benetton and Glasgow Warriors. The Bulls are best-placed of the South African teams in fourth position, with the Stormers seventh, the Lions tenth, and the Sharks 16th.

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 18-rand-91-cents and the euro at 20-rand-37-cents. One British pound costs 23-rand-87-cents and Bitcoin trades at 50-thousand-98-dollars-84-cents. Gold sells at two-thousand-19-dollars-81-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 81-dollars-96-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….