News 12:00

BULLETIN 4 December 12 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# SAA’s pilots plan to strike ahead of the December holidays
# National Treasury welcomes Moody’s affirming of South Africa’s outlook as stable
# And golf: Tiger Woods says he is not tournament sharp yet

# The South African Airways Pilots Association has announced it will embark on a strike tomorrow, ahead of the December holiday rush. This follows stalled salary negotiations, with pilots demanding a 15.7-percent increase, reduced from an initial 30-percent. The airline has offered 8.46-percent. SAA interim CEO John Lamola says the airline is not in a financially robust position to meet the pilots’ demands. He has assured passengers they are implementing contingency plans to minimise disruptions during the peak travel season.

# National Treasury has welcomed rating agency Moody’s reaffirming South Africa’s Ba2 rating and maintaining the country’s stable outlook. The agency says this reflects the country’s credit strengths from effective, core institutions such as the judiciary and the central bank, and a robust, deep financial sector. Treasury also welcomes Moody’s acknowledgement that the government of national unity would pursue structural reforms and ease growth bottlenecks. It adds that economic reforms were beginning to bear fruit.

# The DA in Gauteng is demanding an urgent investigation into the latest case of food poisoning, that claimed the life of a learner from Wilhelmina Hoskins Primary School in Riverlea, Johannesburg, this week. Over 20 children have died from suspected food poisoning linked to spaza shops in the province. The DA’s Sergio Isa dos Santos says the City of Johannesburg’s health officials are not doing enough to ensure compliance of spaza shops:

# Golf: Fifteen-time major champion Tiger Woods says he is unsure if he will return to action anytime soon. The former world number one has only made eleven competitive starts since his car crash in February 2021 and missed the cut in three of the four majors this season. He underwent surgery in September to alleviate back spasms and pain. Forty-eight-year-old Woods, who is hosting the Hero World Challenge event in the Bahamas this week, says he is not tournament-sharp yet:

# The financial indicators: The dollar trades at 18-rand-15-cents and the euro at 19-rand-7-cents. One British pound costs 23-rand-3-cents and Bitcoin trades at 96-thousand-716-dollars. Gold sells at two-thousand-639-dollars-95-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 73-dollars-59-cents a barrel.

# And finally: Afrikaans singer Jean du Plessis, better known as Jan Bloukaas, died yesterday evening after a long sickness. His management confirmed in a short statement that he lost his battle against cancer. Du Plessis recently had success with his song, Sterre Brand, with Janie Bay. It was streamed more than two million times on Spotify. His management says they will miss his laugh, love, fighting spirit, and caring nature.

Stay tuned for more news………….