News 07:00

BULLETIN 13 November 7 am

Good morning. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# President Ramaphosa reshuffles cabinet and fires minister Dion George
# BOSA says fiscal discipline requires building state capacity
# And South Africa records one of the wettest Octobers in more than 30 years

# President Cyril Ramaphosa has made changes to his cabinet, firing minister of Forestry, Fisheries and Environment Dion George. He has been replaced by DA national spokesperson Willie Aucamp. According to reports, DA leader John Steenhuisen had requested that Ramaphosa sack George, citing complaints of underperformance. The president has also appointed the DA’s Alexandra Lilian Amelia Abrahams as deputy minister of Trade Industry and Competition, in place of Andrew Whitfield. Ramaphosa fired Whitfield in June following an unauthorised trip to the US.

# Build One South Africa says the Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement fell short of the deeper reforms needed to achieve five-percent economic growth and create jobs on a meaningful scale. Minister of Finance Enoch Godongwana announced a new inflation target for South Africa of three-percent, replacing the previous target range of between three and six-percent. BOSA leader Mmusi Maimane says the glaring omission in the budget was the lack of additional funding for crime prevention and policing:

# The FF Plus condemns the Johannesburg metro’s selective infrastructure upgrades ahead of the G20 summit as an insult to taxpayers. The party’s Franco de Lange says while world leaders see a polished image, residents still face potholes, broken lights, and poor services. De Lange adds that if the city can fix roads overnight for foreign guests, it can do the same for citizens:

# The US House Oversight Committee has released 20-thousand pages of documents received from convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s estate. In the emails, Epstein referred to president Donald Trump as the “dog that hasn’t barked” and told his former companion Ghislaine Maxwell that an alleged victim had spent hours at his house with Trump. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt says the Democrats on the committee selectively leaked emails to the liberal media to create a fake narrative to smear Trump and distract from his historic accomplishments.

# Cricket: South African pair Senuran Muthusamy and Laura Wolvaardt have been named the ICC men’s and women’s players of the month for October, respectively. Muthusamy has been rewarded for his stellar performances with both bat and ball during the Proteas’ two-Test series in Pakistan. The 31-year-old scored 106 runs and claimed eleven wickets. Wolvaardt led the Proteas Women to the ODI World Cup final. At the World Cup, she amassed 470 runs and recorded three fifties and a century in the semifinals.

# The financial indicators: The dollar trades at 17-rand-9-cents and the euro at 19-rand-80-cents. One British pound costs 22-rand-41-cents and Bitcoin trades at 102-thousand-209-dollars. Gold sells at four-thousand-188-dollars-41-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 62-dollars-28-cents a barrel.

# And finally: The South African Weather Service says parts of South Africa experienced one of the wettest Octobers in 31 years, with several areas receiving well above-average rainfall. Meteorologist Andre Fourie says some stations recorded more than four times their typical October totals, while others marked their wettest October in over three decades. He says, although some regions saw below-normal rainfall, localised extremes highlight significant variability across the country during the start of the summer rainy season:

Stay tuned for more news………….