News 07:00
NEWSFLASH NEWS AGENCY 16 November 7 am
Good morning. I am……..
In this bulletin:
# The minister of Electricity says load-shedding is an existential problem requiring urgent intervention
# Government says there are positive trends emerging in the latest assessment of municipalities
# And, Brazil faces an unprecedented heatwave
# Electricity minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa says load-shedding is an existential problem, both in economic and social terms, which requires urgent intervention. He appeared before Parliament’s portfolio committee on Public Enterprises yesterday. He says the country’s economy could be losing up to one-billion-rand a day, depending on the intensity of load-shedding, and up to 800-thousand jobs have been lost this year alone. Ramokgopa says the priority is to fix Eskom, improve the availability of existing supply, and enable private investment in new generation capacity.
# Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Thembi Nkadimeng says out of the 257 municipalities, 66 have been declared dysfunctional. In 2021, 64 municipalities were declared dysfunctional, while 111 were at medium risk and 16 were deemed stable. She says encouragingly, last year’s assessment shows a slight decrease in medium-risk municipalities to 107. Briefing the media on the government’s support for municipalities, Nkadimeng says citizens deserve service delivery such as houses when funds are allocated:
Play sound: ENG NkadimengOnMunicipalities
# ActionSA plans to file an appeal after the Gauteng government denied access to employment records for people hired through the Nasi Ispani project. Launched by premier Panyaza Lesufi, the job scheme received 1.2-million applications for eight-thousand available positions. ActionSA submitted a Promotion of Access to Information Act application to obtain the records but faced rejection. The party alleges the province is using the jobs initiative to garner support for the ANC ahead of the 2024 elections.
# The City of Cape Town says as it prepares for its busiest period of the year, emergency call centre incidents of the past financial year are concerning. The City’s Public Emergency Communication Centre recorded more than 215-thousand incidents between July last year and June this year. Domestic violence incidents the centre logged went up by 57-percent, child abuse by seven-percent, and prank calls by 80-percent. The city’s JP Smith, says it is however encouraging to see how many people make use of the emergency communication centre:
Play sound: ENG SmithOnCallCentre
# Brazil faces an unprecedented heatwave attributed to El Niño and climate change that is expected to persist until tomorrow. Red alerts have been issued to nearly three-thousand towns and cities. Some areas, including Rio de Janeiro, saw temperatures soar to 52 degrees Celsius this week. Sao Paulo recorded an average of 37 degrees. Red alerts indicate temperatures five degrees above average for over five days, posing a serious health risk. Authorities have observed record-high energy consumption as citizens attempt to cope with the premature onset of summer in the southern hemisphere.
# Motorsport: Mercedes’ driver Lewis Hamilton says they cannot be certain yet how the car that has been unpredictable all season will fare at the Las Vegas Grand Prix this weekend. The Silver Arrows have two races left to avoid their first winless campaign since 2011, but their biggest priority is securing second place in the Constructors’ Championship, in which they hold a 20-point lead over Ferrari. Hamilton says they have a lot of work to do to ensure they have a world championship-winning car next year:
Play sound: ENG HamiltonOnCar
# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 18-rand-24-cents and the euro at 19-rand-78-cents. One British pound costs 22-rand-62-cents and Bitcoin trades at 37-thousand-459-dollars-3-cents. Gold sells at one-thousand-957-dollars-34-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 80-dollars-42-cents a barrel.
Stay tuned for more news………….