News 09:00

BULLETIN 12 March 9 am

Good morning. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# Minister Simelane urges mayors and MECs to take advantage of the Expropriation Act
# Parliament calls for equity in the placement of learners at schools
# And Donald Trump halts his plan to double the tariffs on Canadian steel and metal imports

# Minister of Human Settlements, Thembi Simelane, is calling on MECs, mayors, and mayoral committee members to take advantage of the Expropriation Act. This is by taking over abandoned and hijacked inner-city buildings and repurposing them for affordable housing. The ministry’s spokesperson, Tsekiso Machike, says government leaders have a constitutional obligation to redress the pre-1994 spatial plan. He adds that a Medium-Term Development Plan has been approved, which seeks to, amongst others, deliver 100-thousand affordable housing and 15-thousand social housing units:

# Parliament’s portfolio committee on Basic Education has reiterated that no learner should be left out of school because of the unavailability of education officials to find space. The committee engaged with officials from the Gauteng and Western Cape Department of Education on Tuesday. As of the end of last week, the Western Cape still needed to place 16 Grade R learners and 18 Grade 8 learners for this academic year. In Gauteng, 99 learners still need placement. The committee has called for transparency in application processes to ensure equity and access.

# President Cyril Ramaphosa says Johannesburg’s recovery in Gauteng is possible through collaboration between business, labour, and civil society. Responding to questions in the National Assembly, he highlighted a similar turnaround in eThekwini in KwaZulu-Natal, where key stakeholders worked together on infrastructure, crime, and service delivery. Ramaphosa said banks and businesses are eager to support Johannesburg’s revival, with efforts focused on improving governance and service delivery:

# US president Donald Trump has backed down from his threat of doubling tariffs on Canadian steel and metal imports to 50-percent. This comes after the Canadian province of Ontario suspended new charges of 25-percent on electricity that it supplies to over 1.5 million American homes and businesses. Ontario provides electricity to Minnesota, New York and Michigan. White House trade adviser Peter Navarro says the federal government still plans to place a 25-percent tariff on all Canadian steel and aluminium imports from today.

# Soccer: Paris Saint-Germain is through to the Champions League quarterfinals after beating Liverpool 4-1 on penalties at Anfield. PSG needed to claw back a 1-0 deficit from the last-16 first-leg match. Ousmane Dembele scored 12 minutes into the second-leg match, and the tie finished 1-1 on aggregate. PSG goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma saved penalties from Darwin Nunez and Curtis Jones, while the visitors converted all of their efforts. Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Inter Milan all also booked their place in the quarterfinals.

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 18-rand-26-cents and the euro at 19-rand-90-cents. One British pound costs 23-rand-59-cents and Bitcoin trades at 82-thousand-110-dollars. Gold sells at two-thousand-914-dollars-30-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 69-dollars-72-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….