News 09:00

BULLETIN 4 December 9 am

Good morning. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# The DA says the redeployment of minister Simelane is disrespectful
# Cosatu is dismayed by the contraction of the country’s economy
# And Namibia elects its first female president

# The DA says president Cyril Ramaphosa’s decision to remove Thembi Simelane as minister of Justice and Constitutional Development and redeploy her as minister of Human Settlements, is short-sighted and disrespectful to South Africans. There has been mounting pressure for the president to remove her after it emerged she received a loan from a company that benefited from VBS Mutual Bank, while she was Polokwane mayor. The DA’s, Glynnis Breytenbach, says Simelane does not belong in Cabinet:

# Cosatu says it is disheartening that the country’s gross domestic product has contracted by 0.3-percent in the third quarter compared to the second quarter. Statistics South Africa said the leading contributors to the decline were agriculture, transport, and communications. Cosatu’s, Zanele Sabela, says for a brief period, it appeared as if things were improving when expanded unemployment fell by 0.7-percent, and inflation dropped to 2.8-percent:

# The EFF in Gauteng strongly condemned the disruption of council proceedings by the ANC in the Emfuleni Municipality yesterday, ahead of the vote on the motion of no confidence in mayor, Sipho Radebe. The party says the ANC resorted to disorder and hooliganism, disrupting the council meeting and causing damage to municipal property. The EFF says the ANC has deliberately dismantled accountability and control systems within Emfuleni to facilitate their corrupt and unlawful activities unchecked.

# Namibia has elected its first female leader, Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, from the governing South West Africa People’s Organisation. The Electoral Commission declared that she won more than 57-percent of the votes cast, with her closest rival Panduleni Itula getting 26-percent, but his party the Independent Patriots for Change has rejected the results. Nandi-Ndaitwah also outperformed her party, which received 53-percent of the parliamentary vote, down from 65-percent five years ago. She says the Namibian nation has voted for peace and stability.

# Motorsport: Formula One’s governing body the FIA is planning to change rules to limit the ways its leadership can be held accountable. Changes would mean that FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem and the president of the Senate, Carmelo Sanz De Barros, will oversee any ethics complaints, rather than the Senate itself. Earlier this year, Ben Sulayem was accused of interfering with the outcome of the 2023 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, and he told FIA officials not to certify the Las Vegas circuit for last year’s race. Both claims were dismissed.

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 18-rand-14-cents and the euro at 19-rand-5-cents. One British pound costs 22-rand-97-cents and Bitcoin trades at 95-thousand-885-dollars-49-cents. Gold sells at two-thousand-645-dollars-31-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 73-dollars-69-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….