News 11:00

BULLETIN 3 May 11 am

Good morning. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# The US ambassador to South Africa says America won’t interfere with the elections 
# The UK’s Labour Party makes major gains in local elections

# And soccer, Sundowns wins a seventh straight Premiership title 

# US ambassador to South Africa, Reuben Brigety, says America will not interfere with the electoral process in the country. The Electoral Commission’s top officials met with Brigety earlier this week, fuelling concerns that the US could interfere in the 29 May election. The IEC says there was nothing sinister about the meeting, and it will be meeting with other representatives of countries soon. Brigety told the SABC they want democracy to prevail:

# The Communication Workers Union says its members at the South African Post Office have threatened labour action if no solution is brought forward to halt retrenchments. The Commission for Conciliation, Mediation, and Arbitration’s Single Adjudication Committee rejected the business rescue practitioners’ application for funding from the Temporary Emergency Relief Scheme. This means four-thousand-889 Post Office workers will be retrenched. The union says it was hoping the government would come to its senses and try to override the decision by the CCMA.

# Australian mining giant BHP has deployed a team of top executives to South Africa in a bid to woo government, domestic investors, regulators, and local shareholders. Last week, Anglo-American rejected BHP’s proposed takeover offer, saying the opportunistic proposal significantly undervalues the company. BHP has proposed an all-share takeover of Anglo-American that values it at about 740-billion-rand. It says its proposal was not an indictment of the country but is based on portfolio and commodity considerations.

# The UK’s Labour Party has secured notable victories in the local elections, dealing a blow to Conservative prime minister Rishi Sunak’s leadership. Although vote counting is still ongoing, the biggest result overnight is in Blackpool South, where Labour’s Chris Webb won the parliamentary by-election from the Conservatives with ten-thousand-825 votes. Labour also made gains in Redditch and Hartlepool. Webb has called on Sunak to admit he had failed and to call a general election:

# Soccer: Mamelodi Sundowns have won a seventh straight Premier League title. After a goalless first half, Sundowns found the back of the net five times in the second half to thrash Kaizer Chiefs five-one. They clinched the title by reaching 62 points with six matches to play, leaving Stellenbosch and Orlando Pirates to fight for second place. Sundowns coach Rulani Mokwena says it has been an incredible season: 

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 18-rand-57-cents and the euro at 19-rand-92-cents. One British pound costs 23-rand-30-cents and Bitcoin trades at 59-thousand-336-dollars-52-cents. Gold sells at two-thousand-298-dollars-80-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 83-dollars-94-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….