News 09:00

BULLETIN 4 November 9 am

Good morning. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# The ANC says Ramaphosa is serving the country well
# Minister Steenhuisen praises the record grain harvest this season
# And, a worker trapped under a collapsed medieval tower in Rome has died

# The ANC says it is baffled by reports that president Cyril Ramaphosa is planning on resigning. According to reports over the past few months, the president is planning to step down after the G20 summit in Johannesburg at the end of this month. Speculation further indicated that minister of Mineral and Petroleum Resources, Gwede Mantashe, would serve as acting president. ANC spokesperson, Mahlengi Bhengu, told Newzroom Afrika that Ramaphosa is serving the country well:

# Minister of Agriculture, John Steenhuisen, has commended South Africa’s grain producers for delivering a record-breaking harvest during one of the most challenging economic periods in recent years. The country’s total grain and oilseed output has surpassed 23-million tonnes, marking a 30-percent increase compared to last year. Steenhuisen says with maize harvest alone, at 16.33-million tonnes, this is well over the national need of 12-million tonnes:

# The City of Johannesburg has welcomed the recent court ruling reaffirming its position on regulating informal trading in the inner city. Traders took the metro to court for allegedly arbitrarily evicting them at the beginning of October. The High Court in Johannesburg has ordered the metro to verify, register and allocate spaces to qualifying inner-city traders within two weeks. The metro’s spokesperson, Nthatisi Modingoane, says the court has highlighted the necessity of establishing a structured and compliant framework for informal traders:

# A man who was trapped under the rubble of a collapsed medieval tower in central Rome for hours on Monday has died. Romanian national Octay Stroici was pulled free nearly twelve hours after a section of the 13th-century Torre dei Conti, near the Colosseum, gave way and trapped him beneath. He died in the hospital. According to emergency services, one worker was in hospital in a critical condition, while three others were pulled out unharmed. The Rome Prosecutor’s Office has opened an investigation into the incident.

# Tennis: Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan is through to the semifinals of the WTA Finals in Riyadh for the first time in her career. She rallied past second seed Iga Swiatek of Poland, 3-6, 6-1, 6-0, to improve to 2-0 at this year’s season-ending tournament. Rybakina’s passage to the last four was confirmed following American Amanda Anisimova’s 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 victory over compatriot Madison Keys. Rybakina will face Keys in her last round-robin match, while Swiatek will take on Anisimova in a winner-takes-all final group match.

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 17-rand-33-cents and the euro at 19-rand-96-cents. One British pound costs 22-rand-76-cents and Bitcoin trades at 106-thousand-933-dollars. Gold sells at three-thousand-989-dollars-66-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 64-dollars-60-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….