News 11:00

BULLETIN 25 March 11 am

Good morning. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# Jacob Zuma wants the charges against him dropped
# Chinese electric carmaker BYD beats its rival Tesla
# And rugby: Another blow for the Bulls as Willie le Roux undergoes surgery

# Former president Jacob Zuma has accused the state of delays in his arms deal corruption trial, not his Stalingrad litigation strategy. He is facing charges including corruption, racketeering and fraud. Zuma is seeking to join his co-accused, French arms company Thales’ application, which wants to be acquitted of all charges due to unreasonable delays. Zuma says if the state intended to give effect to his right to a speedy trial, it should have assigned a different prosecutor, rather than insisting on Billy Downer.

# ActionSA says it has informed the ANC task team negotiating the passage of the 2025/’26 budget that it will not support the budget. The party says central to its decision is government’s failure to consult it in the development of the proposed budget. ActionSA’s national chairperson, Michael Beaumont, says the proposed increases in both the value-added tax and income tax cannot be supported, as government has failed to address its own considerable wastage and inefficiencies:

# The Public Servants Association has expressed concern about the recent revelation by government that taxpayers have paid 65-million-rand in rates and services for more than one-thousand vacant state-owned properties. The association’s Claude Naiker says as of January, there were one-thousand-259 state-owned vacant lands, 207 unoccupied houses, and 830 abandoned farms that remain unallocated for utilisation. He says government is potentially losing an estimated 83-million-rand in revenue by not leasing out these properties:

# Chinese carmaker BYD saw a surge in revenue last year, beating rival Tesla as the electric vehicle giant accelerates its overseas expansion. BYD has in recent years emerged as the leader in China’s highly competitive electric vehicle market, which is the largest in the world. It is also increasingly seeking new growth channels abroad, vowing to conquer the European market with a new compact electric model and super-fast charging capabilities to rival continental brands. Tesla’s sales in Europe have dropped following CEO Elon Musk’s support for far-right political groups there.

# Rugby: Springbok fullback Willie le Roux has undergone surgery on his shoulder and is expected to be out of action for a month. This is a major blow for Bulls coach Jake White, who already has concerns about the availability of forwards Cameron Hanekom and Johan Grobbelaar for their United Rugby Championship clash against Zebre in Pretoria on Saturday. Grobbelaar is nursing a shoulder injury while Hanekom suffered a knock in the victory against Leinster. The Bulls are currently third on the URC log.

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 18-rand-22-cents and the euro at 19-rand-68-cents. One British pound costs 23-rand-55-cents and Bitcoin trades at 86-thousand-779-dollars. Gold sells at three-thousand-and-16-dollars-72-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 72-dollars-49-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….