News 11:00

BULLETIN 14 February 11 am

Good morning. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# The Institute of Directors says ineffective governance is a major problem in municipalities
# PetroSA says the appointment of a new CEO is imminent
# And cricket, Dane Piedt takes five wickets on a great day for the Proteas 

# The Institute of Directors in South Africa says ineffective governance lies at the heart of municipal dysfunction. The Auditor General, Tsakani Maluleke’s Material Irregularities in Local Government report, reveals that municipalities accrued almost 5.2-billion-rand in material losses. This is due to irregularities that include non-compliance with financial regulations and suspected fraud. The institute’s CEO, Parmi Natesan, says appointments made on political or other improper grounds are the root cause of the challenges hamstringing the state at all levels.

# State-owned oil and gas company PetroSA says the appointment of a permanent group CEO is imminent. In the meantime, it has appointed acting chief operating officer, Sesakho Magadla, as acting group CEO. PetroSA says it continues to implement a turnaround strategy, which involves the restoration of its gas loop and liquids refinery in Mossel Bay in the Western Cape to full production. It has faced criticism over a controversial decision to select Russia’s Gazprombank Africa as the preferred investment partner to restart operations at the refinery.

# ActionSA in Gauteng says it is fully behind the City of Tshwane’s efforts to stabilise the financial standing of the metro. On Monday, Tshwane mayor, Cilliers Brink, announced a bold financial rescue mission based mainly on increasing revenue and cutting spending. In the current debtor’s book, the money owed to Tshwane is 23.3-billion-rand. ActionSA’s, Funzi Ngobeni, says the city plans on reducing expenditure by one-billion-rand each month for the next six months:

# The US House of Representatives controlled by Republicans has voted to impeach Homeland Security Secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas, over his handling of an unprecedented influx of migrants at the border between America and Mexico. The vote on two articles of impeachment was 214 in favour to 213 opposed. Mayorkas is the first cabinet secretary to be impeached in almost 150 years. President Joe Biden has called the impeachment a blatant act of unconstitutional partisanship that has targeted an honourable public servant to play petty political games.

# Cricket: It was the Dane Piedt-show as the Proteas put up a fight on day two of the second Test against New Zealand in Hamilton. The spinner picked up five wickets and Dane Paterson took three as the Black Caps were bowled out for 211 runs, to hand South Africa a first-innings lead of 31 runs. The Proteas were bowled out this morning for 242 in their first innings, with Ruan de Swardt scoring 64. Piedt says it was a great day for the team:

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 19-rand-8-cents and the euro at 20-rand-44-cents. One British pound costs 23-rand-98-cents and Bitcoin trades at 49-thousand-688-dollars-72-cents. Gold sells at one-thousand-990-dollars-11-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 82-dollars-56-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….