News 09:00

BULLETIN 7 May 9 am

Good morning. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# The FF Plus welcomes the court ruling on the signing of the National Health Insurance Act
# KwaZulu-Natal says 4.6-billion-rand worth of road projects have collapsed
# And India launches deadly missile strikes inside Pakistan

# The Freedom Front Plus has welcomed the High Court in Pretoria’s ruling that the signing of the National Health Insurance Act into law may be taken under review. The ruling comes as a result of legal action brought by the Board of Health Funders and the South African Private Practitioners Forum, which questioned the rationality of Ramaphosa signing the bill into law despite vast dissent and constitutional issues raised. FF Plus’, Philip van Staden, says NHI is an unrealistic dream:

# The Transnational Alliance to Combat Illicit Trade says illicit trade continues to pose a serious threat to South Africa’s economic stability, governance, and international standing. According to its latest report, the country loses about 30-billion-rand in revenue every year due to the illicit trade in cigarettes and liquor. South Africa was placed at 60 out of 158 countries surveyed for the report. Tracit says South Africa’s continued placement on the Financial Action Task Force grey list, underscores persistent shortcomings in anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing frameworks.

# KwaZulu-Natal Transport and Human Settlements MEC, Siboniso Duma, has expressed concern that 30 contractors, who were awarded road tenders, are failing to complete projects on time. The tenders are worth 4.6-billion-rand. Two of the contractors have abandoned projects altogether. Duma says his department plans to meet with the Construction Industry Development Board, adding that some companies lie about the scale of the contracts they can handle:

# The Indian government says it has launched missile strikes on nine terrorist sites in both Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir. Pakistan says eight people have been killed, including children, in what prime minister Shehbaz Sharif has described as an act of war. Both India and Pakistan control parts of the contested Kashmir border region. This latest escalation comes after India accused Pakistan of being involved in an attack on Hindu tourists in Kashmir last month, which killed 26 people.

# Soccer: Inter Milan are through to the Champions League final after beating Barcelona 4-3 in the semifinal second leg at the San Siro to win the tie 7-6 on aggregate. Inter trailed 3-2 with just two minutes of added time left when centre-back Francesco Acerbi smashed a cross into the roof of the net to level the tie. Substitute Davide Frattesi struck an extra-time winner to send his side to the final for the second time in three years. Inter will face either Paris Saint-Germain or Arsenal.

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 18-rand-22-cents and the euro at 20-rand-68-cents. One British pound costs 24-rand-33-cents and Bitcoin trades at 96-thousand-623-dollars-XX-cents. Gold sells at three-thousand-386-dollars a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 62-dollars-34-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….