News 11:00

BULLETIN 29 April 11 am

Good morning. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# The ANC wants minister Malatsi to account to Parliament over the draft National Artificial Intelligence Policy
# MISA warns the temporary fuel relief is too limited to prevent a price shock next month
# And soccer: Sundown’s coach is worried a busy schedule could lead to injuries to his Bafana Bafana players

# The ANC says minister of Communications and Digital Technologies, Solly Malatsi, must appear before Parliament to account for the draft National Artificial Intelligence Policy. Malatsi withdrew the policy after it was discovered that six sources referenced in the document did not exist. Internal investigations subsequently confirmed that A-I-generated citations were inserted into the document. The ANC’s Hlengiwe Hadebe says this debacle represents one of the most alarming failures of ministerial oversight and intellectual rigour in the recent history of South Africa’s digital governance. 

# The Motor Industry Staff Association says temporary fuel relief measures will not be enough to prevent a sharp fuel price increase next month. The union warns rising global oil prices linked to the conflict in Iran could push petrol prices up by around two-rand per litre, and diesel prices by up to six-rand per litre. MISA’s Phakamile Hlubi-Majola calls for a full review of fuel pricing to protect households and workers from rising living costs:

# Cape Town mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis has welcomed the renewed rail devolution commitments in the draft National Rail Masterplan released for public comment by Transport minister Barbara Creecy. The plan outlines an ambitious two-trillion-rand vision for repositioning South Africa’s underperforming rail sector as the backbone of the country’s logistics and transport system by 2050. Hill-Lewis says Cape Town stands ready to be the first metro to run its local trains:

Moving abroad:

# UK members of Parliament have rejected a motion calling for prime minister Keir Starmer to face a parliamentary inquiry into whether he misled the House of Commons over Peter Mandelson’s appointment as US ambassador. The house voted 335 to 223 against a Conservative-led motion that sought to trigger the inquiry. Mandelson is alleged to have passed on market-sensitive government information to the late convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, while he was the Business Secretary from 2008 to 2010. The Labour Party labelled the motion a political stunt.

# Soccer: Mamelodi Sundowns’ coach, Miguel Cardoso, is worried his team’s busy schedule could result in key Bafana Bafana players being injured before the World Cup. He previously asked the Premier League to postpone domestic games so Sundowns would get more time to prepare for next month’s African Champions League final matches against Morocco’s Royal Armed Forces. The team plays four PSL matches before that. About 11 Sundowns players are regarded as possibilities for the World Cup.

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 16-rand-53-cents and the euro at 19-rand-35-cents. One British pound costs 22-rand-33-cents and Bitcoin trades at 77-thousand-36-dollars. Gold sells at four-thousand-586-dollars-14-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 104-dollars-61-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….