News 08:00

BULLETIN 20 January 8 am

Good morning. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# The DA wants the National State Enterprises Bill scrapped
# The Public Service Bargaining Council is still waiting on an answer from the unions
# And TikTok is restoring its service in the US following Trump’s pledge

# The DA says minister in the Presidency, Responsible for Planning, Monitoring, and Evaluation, Maropene Ramokgopa, must scrap the National State Enterprises Bill. The bill released for public comment last Friday, has drawn sharp criticism from different sectors, arguing that the legislation could facilitate the sale of state-owned enterprises, and fails to improve the current state of affairs. The DA’s, Darren Bergman, says they unequivocally reject the creation of a Mega-SOE that will cost a fortune to manage:

# The Public Service Bargaining Council says it is still waiting for feedback from public service unions on the government’s revised three-year wage offer. Parties met on the eighth of January, where the government revised its wage offer from 4.7-percent to five-percent for 2025/2026. This led to unions, representing the country’s more than 1.3-million public servants, revising their demands down to six-percent. The unions say they aim to conclude the negotiations before Finance minister Enoch Godongwana’s budget speech next month.

# The City of Tshwane has filed papers with the Labour Court to overturn an arbitration award that ordered five suspended senior officials to return to work today. The senior officials were implicated in the controversial Rooiwal wastewater treatment plant tender, linked to controversial businessman Edwin Sodi. The metro’s spokesperson, Lindela Mashigo, says they want the court to review and set aside the South African Local Government Bargaining Council’s arbitration award in favour of the employees:

# TikTok says it has begun restoring service to its 170-million users in the US following a temporary and voluntary shutdown on Sunday. The company has attributed its return to a move by president-elect Donald Trump to save the app. Trump said he would sign an executive order after taking office today, allowing the Chinese-owned video app additional time to find a buyer before facing a total shutdown. He has proposed that the US or an American firm take a 50-percent ownership stake in the company.

# Tennis: Ten-time champion Novak Djokovic says he expects a tough battle against Carlos Alcaraz in their Australian Open quarterfinal clash on Tuesday. The Serbian continued his bid for a record 25th Grand Slam title with a, 6-3, 6-4, 7-6, win against Czech’s Jiri Lehecka in the fourth round. Alcaraz progressed when Briton Jack Draper retired with a hip injury. The Spaniard has beaten Djokovic three times out of seven matches. Djokovic says he is looking forward to facing Alcaraz:

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 18-rand-70-cents and the euro at 19-rand-26-cents. One British pound costs 22-rand-80-cents and Bitcoin trades at 101-thousand-460-dollars. Gold sells at two-thousand-703-dollars-33-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 79-dollars-77-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….