News 09:00

BULLETIN 28 August 9 am

Good morning. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# SCOPA talks to stakeholders about the Special Investigation Unit’s funding model
# AfriForum will join the public consultation process on Eskom’s proposed increase
# And tennis: Stefanos Tsitsipas and Emma Raducanu are knocked out of the US Open

# Parliament’s standing committee on Public Accounts has committed to engaging the relevant stakeholders on the funding model of the Special Investigating Unit. The SIU is owed over one-billion-rand by municipalities, national and provincial departments, and state-owned entities. Committee chairperson, Songezo Zibi, says in terms of the current funding model of the SIU, 40 percent of the funding comes from the National Treasury, while it is expected to raise 60-percent by invoicing the entities it investigates:

# AfriForum is set to join the public consultation process to block Eskom’s proposed 36-percent power tariff increase. The civil rights organisation warned it would take legal action if NERSA approves the hike. NERSA received Eskom’s application for tariff increases for 2025-2028, with public input and regulatory review to follow. AfriForum’s Morné Mostert says the organisation vows to protect consumers from unfair rate hikes.

# The Western Cape provincial government has welcomed the results of the Auditor-General’s consolidated general report on Local Government Audit Outcomes for the 2022/2023 period. The report revealed that the 20 municipalities in the province achieved an unqualified audit with no findings and six municipalities achieved an unqualified audit with findings. MEC for Finance and Local Government, Deidré Baartman, says there is however work that needs to be done to ensure sound financial management to improve service delivery within local governments:

# Spain will donate 500-thousand Mpox vaccine doses to countries in central Africa suffering from a surge in cases. Spain’s health ministry says the doses amount to 20-percent of Spain’s total Mpox vaccine reserves. Spain also urged its European Union peers to follow suit and also donate 20-percent of their Mpox vaccine stockpile, saying it makes no sense to stockpile vaccines where there is no problem. France and Germany have both announced they will each donate 100-thousand Mpox vaccine doses to countries suffering from the emergency.

# Tennis: World number one Jannik Sinner of Italy recovered from a set down to beat American Mackenzie McDonald, 2-6, 6-2, 6-1, 6-2, to make the US Open second round. Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz earned his 60th major match win, defeating Australian qualifier Li Tu, 6-2, 4-6, 6-3, 6-1. Greece’s Stefanos Tsitsipas suffered an early exit for the seventh year in a row as he lost to Australia’s Thanasi Kokkinakis in the first round. In the women’s draw, former champion Emma Raducanu of Britain lost, 6-1 3-6, 6-4, to American Sofia Kenin.

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 17-rand-74-cents and the euro at 19-rand-81-cents. One British pound costs 23-rand-50-cents and Bitcoin trades at 59-thousand-581-dollars-46-cents. Gold sells at two-thousand-513-dollars-65-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 79-dollars-57-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….