News 07:00

BULLETIN 5 April 7 am

Good morning. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# Harmony Gold’s workers will receive their annual salary increases over 5 years
# Minister Cele says the actions of the police in Mariannhill were justified
# And the Palestine Solidarity Campaign urges an investigation into South Africans allegedly serving in the Israeli Defence Force

# Trade union Solidarity welcomes the five-year wage agreement reached with mining company Harmony Gold. The agreement, in collaboration with the National Union of Mineworkers, the United Association of South Africa, the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union, and the metalworkers union Numsa includes salary increases and housing allowance increments over the next five years. It also ensures the implementation of an employee share ownership plan within three months. Solidarity’s general secretary, Gideon du Plessis, lauds the agreement as a triumph for collective bargaining:

# The Public Servants Association says it strongly denounces recent comments by economist, Dawie Roodt, suggesting that the country’s public servants are overpaid and deliver subpar services. His comments come after public servants received a 4.7-percent salary increase effective from the first of this month. The PSA says salary increments for the 2023/2024 financial year failed to keep pace with inflation, exacerbating the financial pressures on public servants. The association maintains that public servants are undervalued and overworked.

# Police minister Bheki Cele says the actions of officers in Desia, Mariannhill, west of Durban, were justified because residents had long complained of violent crimes. Nine suspected gang members were killed by police during a shootout in the early hours of Wednesday morning. The suspects are linked to various incidents of crime in the community, including 23 house robberies, murder and rape. Cele says police don’t target criminals to kill them.

# The Western Cape Education Department says it is currently facing an 870-million-rand deficit in the 2024/2025 financial year, due to the major national budget cuts. This has resulted in the department being forced to implement stringent cost-containment measures. The department’s spokesperson, Bronagh Hammond, says the deficit now needs to be absorbed to cover the cost of the increases in the nationally negotiated public sector wage agreement:

# The Palestine Solidarity Campaign laid a complaint with the police and informed the National Prosecution Authority regarding a South African allegedly serving in the Israeli Occupation Forces. The complaint, Usuf Chikte, cites potential violations of the Rome Statute and the Regulation of Foreign Military Assistance Act. He urges immediate investigation, prosecution, and extradition of implicated individuals, for those serving in conflicts not supported by South Africa:

# Tennis: Saudi Arabia will host the professional women’s season-ending tournament for the next three years. The world’s top eight singles players and doubles teams will participate in the WTA Finals, which will take place in the capital of Riyadh from 2 to 9 November this year. Prize money has been increased by 70-percent to 284-million-rand. WTA chairperson Steve Simon says their partnership with the kingdom should build on the game’s exposure to a market and a region with a rapidly growing impact on the sports industry.

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 18-rand-75-cents and the euro at 20-rand-31-cents. One British pound costs 23-rand-68-cents and Bitcoin trades at 68-thousand-57-dollars-99-cents. Gold sells at two-thousand-272-dollars-40-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 90-dollars-89-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….