News 12:00

BULLETIN 13 February 12 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# An economist says the state of the nation address stressed jobs and investor confidence
# High water consumption continues to put significant strain on Tshwane’s systems
# And cricket: Afghanistan’s Nabi is sanctioned for an incident during the T20 World Cup match against the Proteas

# Professor Raymond Parsons of North West University’s School of Business and Governance says president Cyril Ramaphosa’s state of the nation address emphasised that South Africa is at a turning point. Key priorities include combating violent crime, ensuring water security, supporting small, medium and micro enterprises, reforming Eskom, and strengthening public-private partnerships. Parsons stresses successful implementation with realistic timelines is crucial to translate policies into tangible improvements:

AfriForum says Ramaphosa has failed farmers and meat consumers by continuing to insist on a centralised procurement of foot-and-mouth disease vaccines. Ramaphosa said government will vaccinate the national herd of at least 14-million cattle, with the state facilitating the acquisition of the vaccines centrally. AfriForum’s Jacques Broodryk says government is blindly continuing on its path of destruction:

# The City of Tshwane says water levels are continuing to decline in several reservoirs. Some reservoirs are gradually recovering from depletion and are showing signs of stabilisation. The metro’s spokesperson, Selby Bokaba, says the systems still experiencing major challenges include the Mabopane Main and Kruisfontein reservoirs, which are still at critically low levels:

Moving abroad:

# Goldman Sachs’ chief legal official, Kathy Ruemmler, has resigned following the release of the latest Jeffrey Epstein files by the US Justice Department. Despite insisting she had a professional relationship with the late convicted sex offender, Ruemmler refers to him as “Uncle Jeffrey” in emails and other correspondence. She also received several expensive gifts from Epstein after he was convicted of sex crimes in 2008. The former White House counsel to former president Barack Obama, says her responsibility is to put Goldman Sachs’ interests first, hence her resignation.

# Cricket: Afghanistan all-rounder Mohammad Nabi has been sanctioned for disobeying the umpires’ instruction during Wednesday’s T20 World Cup match against South Africa in Ahmedabad, India. He complained that pace bowler Lungi Ngidi’s armband was distracting him, saying he couldn’t see the ball properly. Nabi was fined 15-percent of his match-fee and given a demerit point for his prolonged argument with the officials, although Ngidi was ordered to remove the band from his bowling arm. The Proteas won the match in the second super over.

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 16-rand-2-cents and the euro at 19-rand. One British pound costs 21-rand-81-cents and Bitcoin trades at 66-thousand-380-dollars. Gold sells at four-thousand-982-dollars-45-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 67-dollars-8-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….