News 11:00

BULLETIN 4 September 11 am

Good morning. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# President Ramaphosa says government is shifting the country’s trade profile
# Solidarity condemns the Health minister’s race-based defence of the National Health Insurance
# And the National Defence Force’s first commander, Georg Meiring, has passed away

# President Cyril Ramaphosa says government is seeking to shift the structure of South Africa’s trade profile and deepen investment relationships. He addressed the South Africa-China Business Forum in Beijing today. China is South Africa’s largest trading partner, while South Africa is China’s number one trading partner in Africa. Total bilateral trade grew from 614-billion-rand in 2022 to 692-billion last year. Ramaphosa says the country’s economy presents many opportunities for foreign and domestic investment:

# Trade union Solidarity has warned that the National Health Insurance could lead to national division and economic harm. The union condemned Health minister Aaron Motsoaledi for using racially charged rhetoric to promote the NHI, comparing criticism of the policy to apartheid-era scaremongering. Solidarity’s Theuns du Buisson argues the NHI is unworkable and unaffordable, and will negatively impact all citizens, regardless of race, leading to a mass exodus of doctors:

 # Gauteng Judge President Dunstan Mlambo says he is exploring measures to encourage litigants to consider mediation before bringing cases to the Johannesburg High Court. The country’s busiest court has a massive case backlog. Commercial litigants are expected to wait until at least August 2025 for hearing dates, while some Road Accident Fund cases have trial dates allocated as far ahead as April 2029. Mlambo says many of the cases brought before a judge could have been settled through mediation.

# Soccer: Mamelodi Sundowns’ veteran midfield maestro, Themba Zwane, will captain Bafana Bafana for the upcoming 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers against Uganda and South Sudan. Regular captain and goalkeeper Ronwen Williams is recovering from an injury. The national team starts their qualifiers against Uganda at Orlando Stadium on Friday and away to South Sudan on Tuesday. Bafana coach Hugo Broos wants players to rise to the occasion:

# The financial indicators: The dollar trades at 17-rand-98-cents and the euro at 19-rand-87-cents. One British pound costs 23-rand-57-cents and Bitcoin trades at 56-thousand-301-dollars-47-cents. Gold sells at two-thousand-486-dollars-19-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 73-dollars-12-cents a barrel.

# And finally, the first commander of the South African National Defence Force, Georg Meiring, has died at the age of 85. He was the chief of the Army from 1990 to ’93 and thereafter the first chief of the South African National Defence Force until 1998. Meiring, known as one of the so-called Big Five generals of the Border War era, was awarded the Order of the Star of South Africa in gold and received the Order of the Cloud and Banner 4th class from Taiwan.

Stay tuned for more news………….