News 12:00

BULLETIN 13 November 12 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# BOSA requests a parliamentary debate over the unemployment crisis
# NotInMyName calls for the shutdown of all illegal spaza shops
# And motorsport: Formula One’s race director steps down with immediate effect

# Build One South Africa has asked the National Assembly speaker, Thoko Didiza, for a debate of urgent national importance on the high unemployment rate. The rate fell by more than expected in the third quarter, declining by 1.4 percentage points to 32.1-percent, but eight-million people are still unemployed. BOSA’s Roger Solomon says the consequences of long-term unemployment contribute to a cycle of poverty and inequality:

# NotInMyName International is calling for the immediate shutdown of all unregistered spaza shops across the country. The recent foodborne illness outbreak, linked to snacks bought at spaza shops, has resulted in the death of 23 children in Gauteng alone. The organisation’s Themba Masango says government must declare this outbreak a national state of emergency:

# The City of Cape Town has ramped up security at 14 hiking trails as it prepares for the festive season. Thirty-two law enforcement officials will do shifts at respective sites from 4am until 8pm daily. The metro’s commissioner for Public Safety, Robbie Roberts, says law enforcement officials have also been deployed in the Bo-Kaap and the CBD. He adds this is to ensure that tourists and local residents are safe and secure during the festive season.

# Motorsport: Formula One race director Niels Wittich has stepped down from his role with immediate effect, with three races left in the season. The German has been in the job since 2022, initially sharing it with Eduardo Freitas as a dual replacement for Michael Masi, before taking on the job full-time last year. The FIA says Wittich is leaving to pursue new opportunities. F2 and F3 race director Rui Marques has been named as Wittich’s replacement, starting with next week’s Las Vegas Grand Prix.

# The financial indicators: The dollar trades at 18-rand-8-cents and the euro at 19-rand-16-cents. One British pound costs 23-rand-2-cents and Bitcoin trades at 87-thousand-525-dollars. Gold sells at two-thousand-603-dollars-14-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 68-dollars-8-cents a barrel.

# And finally: Orbital by Samantha Harvey has won the 2024 Booker Prize, the UK’s most prestigious prize for fiction. At 136 pages long, Orbital is the second-shortest book to win in the prize’s 55-year history. The book, which is Harvey’s fifth novel, deals with a single day in the life of six astronauts and cosmonauts. Harvey, who is the first woman to win the award since 2019, says this will change her life:

Stay tuned for more news………….