News 12:00

BULLETIN 8 Sepember 12 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# The IEC introduces a new Disinformation Code ahead of the local government elections
# COSATU says the Public Procurement Amendment Bill will help tackle corruption
# And soccer: A presidential candidate gives SAFA a deadline to pay Bafana Bafana’s World Cup bonuses

# The Electoral Commission has promulgated the Electoral Code of Conduct Countering Disinformation in the Local Government Elections and published it in the Government Gazette ahead of the 4 November elections. The IEC says under the code, political parties and candidates must check information for accuracy before sharing it and publicly retract and correct any false or misleading information within 36 hours. It adds a free and fair election depends not only on procedural fairness but also on whether voters can trust the information shaping their voting choices:

Meanwhile, minister of Home Affairs, Leon Schreiber, is urging South Africans who still need their identity documents to apply now in preparation for the elections. He is also appealing to citizens who have not yet collected their IDs to do so as soon as possible. As of last month, the department had more than 370-thousand smart ID’s that remained uncollected. Schreiber says Home Affairs has dramatically expanded access by rolling out digitalised Smart ID services at over 450 bank branches in just five months.

# Union federation COSATU says if the Public Procurement Amendment Bill is passed into law, it will be an important weapon in the war against state capture and corruption. The bill seeks to strengthen the Public Procurement Act. COSATU’s Matthew Parks says workers have paid and continue to pay a heavy price for state capture and corruption that has bled the state of hundreds of billions of rand:

# Soccer: SAFA presidential candidate Sandile Zungu has given the association until Thursday to pay Bafana Bafana players and technical team their World Cup bonuses. SAFA has attributed the delay in the payment of around 2.5-million-rand to each player to outstanding international tax compliance requirements in the US and Mexico, where South Africa played tournament matches. Zungu has warned those responsible will be fired if he is elected on Saturday:

# The financial indicators: The dollar trades at 16-rand-6-cents and the euro at 18-rand-65-cents. One British pound costs 21-rand-72-cents and Bitcoin trades at 78-thousand-380-dollars. Gold sells at four-thousand-395-dollars-63-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 100-dollars-74-cents a barrel.

# And finally: MultiChoice has launched a new sports-only DStv package, priced at 399-rand a month, as the broadcaster responds to changing viewing habits and pressure on subscriber numbers. The package gives customers access to a range of live sporting content without requiring a broader DStv subscription. MultiChoice says the offering is aimed at making some premium sports more accessible to customers who want sport without paying for additional entertainment channels. Premium tier events like Springbok tests, international rugby, Formula 1, and MotoGP remain restricted to the DStv Premium package at 799-rand per month.

Stay tuned for more news………….