News 08:00

BULLETIN 25 April 8 am

Good morning. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# Eskom says it has recovered its generation capacity
# The Public Servants Association is calling for economic growth
# And the Israeli military admits to killing a UN worker in Gaza

# Eskom says stage two load-shedding, which was implemented on Thursday afternoon, due to loss of generation units and higher-than-expected electricity demand, was suspended at midnight. This follows the recovery of approximately two-thousand-and-15-megawatts of generation capacity, an expected decline in electricity demand, and sufficient emergency reserves. Eskom’s spokesperson, Daphne Mokwena, says they will release their power alert later today:

# The Public Servants Association is calling on the government to explore more equitable and sustainable ways to address the country’s fiscal challenges. This follows Finance minister Enoch Godongwana’s scrapping of the 0.5-percent value-added tax hike. The association’s Claude Naiker says Godongwana must prioritise policies that promote economic growth and social justice, rather than measures that place an undue burden on the poor and working class:

# The Freedom Front Plus says it has proposed several changes to the City of Johannesburg’s draft budget for the 2025/2026 financial year, as it will not support it in its current form. The party’s Cor Boer says in a meeting with mayor Dada Morero, they proposed that property rates should not be increased, while the tariff hikes for sanitation and refuse removal should be limited to 4.6-percent. He says they also proposed that capital expenditure on water infrastructure be increased:

# The Israeli military has admitted to killing a United Nations worker in a strike on a UN guesthouse in Gaza last month, backtracking on its previous denials. Bulgarian UN worker Marin Valev Marinov was killed in the strike, while six others were injured. The Israeli military says its preliminary investigation into the incident indicated its troops had killed the UN worker, after wrongly identifying the building as containing an enemy presence. It adds that it regrets this serious incident.

# Tennis: Defending champion Iga Swiatek came from a set down to beat Filipino teenager Alexandra Eala, 4-6, 6-4, 6-2, in their Madrid Open second-round match. The Pole is joined in the third round by American Coco Gauff, who overcame a disastrous first set to beat Ukraine’s Dayana Yastremska, 0-6, 6-2, 7-5. Stuttgart champion Jelena Ostapenko suffered a shock, 7-6, 6-2, loss to fellow Latvian Anastasija Sevastova. In the men’s draw, Britain’s Cameron Norrie, Kei Nishikori of Japan and Germany’s Jan-Lennard Struff are through to the second round.

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 18-rand-82-cents and the euro at 21-rand-35-cents. One British pound costs 25-rand-3-cents and Bitcoin trades at 93-thousand-185-dollars. Gold sells at three-thousand-347-dollars-48-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 65-dollars-93-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….