News 07:00

BULLETIN 22 July 7 am

Good morning. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# The DA says minister Pule has failed to provide a credible plan to fix SASSA
# Minister Gwarube discusses funded posts and schooling capacity with the Treasury
# And motorsport: The former MotoGP world champion leaves Yamaha for Honda

# The DA says newly appointed minister of Social Development, Dina Pule’s first media briefing was short on details and long on promises. The minister revealed that government will review more than 350-thousand social grants, as part of efforts to protect the integrity of the social assistance system and save an estimated 1.5-billion-rand for the fiscus. The DA’s Nazley Sharif says Pule did little to convince South Africans that she has a credible plan to fix the department or the South African Social Security Agency:

# The Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Rights Commission has launched an investigation into the root causes of the current winter season initiation deaths. Forty-three initiates have died, accompanied by 12 abductions, 75 hospitalisations, 180 rescues, 58 illegal initiation schools, 150 criminal cases, and 40 arrests. The commission’s deputy chairperson, George Mahlangu, says the investigation will assess whether the Customary Initiation Act is being properly enforced and identify gaps in the regulation of initiation schools:

# Minister of Basic Education, Siviwe Gwarube, says the department is engaging provinces and the National Treasury on the impact of fiscal pressures on funded posts and schooling capacity. There were 17-thousand-450 vacancies across 389-thousand-286 allocated posts by the end of January this year. Gwarube says educator posts allocated through approved provincial establishments were intended to be funded posts, but the Post Provisioning Norms did not provide for the allocation of unfunded posts. She says the department is reviewing the Post Provisioning Norms urgently.

# The City of Cape Town has set aside more than six-billion-rand over the next three years to upgrade electricity infrastructure and improve the reliability of power supply. The funding will be used to upgrade the electricity grid, expand clean energy projects, improve street lighting, strengthen energy security and reduce reliance on Eskom. Mayoral committee member for Energy, Xanthea Limberg, says the city has also kept the average residential electricity tariff increase to 6.64-percent:

# Israeli Finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich says his country has no interest in joining the renewed US military campaign against Iran. Israel and America started the war with coordinated attacks on Tehran on 28 February, prompting Iran to retaliate against US military assets across the Middle East. Smotrich says the current war and sustained economic pressure on Iran benefit Israel. He added that the ultimate goal of Israel, and not necessarily the US, is to undermine and weaken the regime in Iran – to the point of overthrowing it.

# Motorsport: Former MotoGP world champion Fabio Quartararo hopes to reignite his career with the announcement he would leave Yamaha after eight seasons and join Honda. The 27-year-old won the title in 2021, becoming the first Frenchman ever to be crowned world champion. He ended second the next year, but struggled from then on. He signed a two-year contract with Honda from next season and will race for the factory Honda HRC team on an 850cc bike. Quartararo is currently 14th in the riders’ standings.

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 16-rand-45-cents and the euro at 18-rand-75-cents. One British pound costs 22-rand-1-cents and Bitcoin trades at 66-thousand-393-dollars. Gold sells at four-thousand-118-dollars-23-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 89-dollars-74-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….