News 08:00

BULLETIN 9 January 8 am

Good morning. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# The EFF is set to introduce a Student Debt Cancellation Bill
# The GOOD Party notes the judgment on the publication of the matric results
# And the death toll from the LA wildfires has risen to five

# The EFF says it will introduce a Student Debt Cancellation Private Member’s Bill in Parliament. From 2017 to 2024, national student debt grew from around eleven-billion-rand to approximately 17-billion-rand, averaging an increase of two-billion-rand each year. The EFF’s, Sihle Lonzi, says the bill seeks to clear all student debt and establish a qualification registrar, which will be a central government body that takes over the distribution and administering of qualifications and certificates:

# The GOOD Party says the Information Regulator and the Department of Basic Education must work together in the future to find a method of matric result publication. The High Court in Pretoria dismissed the regulator’s bid to block the department from publishing the 2024 matric results in the media. GOOD’s secretary general, Brett Herron, says given that the results are now published by exam number only, the balance of common sense must weigh in favour of protecting privacy:

# ActionSA has lauded the Tshwane Municipality, led by mayor Nasiphi Moya, for restoring clean, drinkable water to Hammanskraal through Phase 1 of the Klipdrift Wastewater Treatment Plant project. ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba says this collaborative effort with Magalies Water and other partners, marks a transformative step for communities long denied basic services. He says this milestone is a model of ethical, multiparty governance delivering on constitutional rights.

# The death toll from wildfires in the Los Angeles area has risen to five, with more than one-thousand structures destroyed. According to officials, the ongoing fires in Palisades, Eaton, Hurst, Woodley, and Lidia are zero-percent contained, as high winds and drained resources challenge fire crews. More than 100-thousand people have been forced to evacuate from the Eaton fire alone, and 37-thousand from the Palisades inferno. LA City Fire Chief, Kristin Crowley, says the fires are continuing to spread rapidly:

# Cricket: The third edition of the SA20 gets underway today, with back-to-back reigning champions Sunrisers Eastern Cape taking on MI Cape Town at St George’s Park in Gqeberha. Sunrisers coach Adrian Birrell has managed to retain the core of his championship-winning team and bolstered it with the recruitment of England internationals Zak Crawley, Richard Gleeson, and Craig Overton. Meanwhile, MI Cape Town, who finished rock bottom in 2023 and 2024, is boosted by acquiring Proteas white-ball opener Reeza Hendricks for 4.3-million-rand.

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 18-rand-91-cents and the euro at 19-rand-50-cents. One British pound costs 23-rand-36-cents and Bitcoin trades at 94-thousand-353-dollars. Gold sells at two-thousand-659-dollars-89-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 75-dollars-87-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….