News 11:00

BULLETIN 6 July 11 am

Good morning. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# Cat Matlala will not testify before the Madlanga commission tomorrow
# Venezuela’s interim president defends the response to the deadly earthquakes
# And soccer: Norway stuns Brazil and England knocks out co-hosts Mexico to reach the World Cup quarterfinals

# Alleged underworld figure, Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala, will not appear before the Madlanga commission tomorrow, despite the inquiry issuing a subpoena for him to appear. He is alleged to have operated a criminal syndicate that cultivated relationships with senior police officials and politically connected individuals to influence investigations, secure state contracts, and undermine law enforcement operations. The commission’s spokesperson, Jeremy Michaels, says due to the heightened media and public interest in Matlala’s testimony, his evidence has been postponed to a date yet to be determined. 

#  Eskom continues to maintain additional system capacity, with four-thousand-844-megawatts in cold reserve due to excess capacity, providing further assurance of system adequacy. Spokesperson Daphne Mokwena says last week, average unplanned outages declined to nine-thousand-850-megawatts, compared to 14-thousand-981-megawatts during the same period last year. She says this is representing a reduction of five-thousand-131-megawatts, more than the generating capacity of a large power station such as Kusile:

# Gauteng Finance MEC, Nkululeko Dunga, says a plan of action has been established to address the worrying state of finances in municipalities. Six of the eleven municipalities received unqualified audit opinions with findings in the 2024/25 financial year. For the year under review, Gauteng municipalities recorded a total of 14.4-billion-rand in irregular expenditure. Dunga says the provincial government will strengthen the monitoring of unauthorised, irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure reduction strategies at every municipality:

Moving abroad:

# Venezuela’s interim president, Delcy Rodríguez, has once again defended her government’s handling of last month’s deadly twin earthquakes, accusing critics of seeking to stir hatred against the state. Many Venezuelans have accused the government of chronic mismanagement and corruption, and an inadequate response to the disaster. Three-thousand-342 people have been killed after two earthquakes with magnitudes of 7.2 and 7.5 respectively struck the country. Sixteen-thousand-470 people have been injured, and 17-thousand-345 were left homeless. Rodríguez has vowed the country will not descend into social unrest.

# Soccer: Norway stunned five-time champions Brazil 2-1 in New Jersey to reach the World Cup quarterfinals for the first time. Manchester City striker Erling Haaland scored two goals in the second half. Neymar pulled a goal back for Brazil with a late penalty, but it wasn’t enough for Carlo Ancelotti’s side. Meanwhile, ten-man England defeated co-hosts Mexico 3-2 at the Azteca Stadium to book a quarterfinal clash with Norway. Jude Bellingham scored twice in 98 seconds, and captain Harry Kane converted a penalty to secure victory for England.

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 16-rand-25-cents and the euro at 18-rand-55-cents. One British pound costs 21-rand-66-cents and Bitcoin trades at 62-thousand-888-dollars. Gold sells at four-thousand-149-dollars-56-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 71-dollars-83-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….