News 13:00

BULLETIN 3 March 1 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# The DA wants president Ramaphosa to fire Dipuo Peters
# Fikile Mbalula says the ANC is committed to reducing the cost of living
# And, motorsport: There’s just no stopping Verstappen

# The DA demands that president Cyril Ramaphosa revises his decision from the suspension of the deputy minister of Small Business Development, Dipuo Peters, to her removal. The DA’s Jan de Villiers says Peters, throughout her tenure in what he refers to as the state capture cabinet under former president Jacob Zuma, exhibited gross negligence. She failed to appoint a chief executive for Prasa and dismissed the entity’s board after it uncovered 14-billion-rand in financial irregularities:

# ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula says the ruling party is committed to reducing the cost of living and hunger in the country. Mbalula was speaking during the Northern Cape provincial leg of the ANC’s manifesto launch at Galeshewe Stadium in Kimberley. He says when people look at the economic trajectory of the country, they realise food prices have gone up. The party need to work on this and reduce prices while it actively fights poverty. According to Mbalula, the ANC’s policies will make this possible.

# Eskom has welcomed the recommendations of a report, commissioned by National Treasury, as part of the plan to return the power utility to sustainability. The report covers an assessment period from March to May last year, coinciding with the inception of the Eskom board’s generation operational recovery plan. Spokesperson Daphne Mokwena says in October last year, Eskom unveiled many of the improvements already made:

# The Nigerian government is demanding more than 190-billion-rand in compensation from the cryptocurrency firm, Binance. It says Binance manipulated foreign exchange rates through currency speculation and rate-fixing, which have seen the naira lose nearly 70-percent of its value in recent months. The BBC reports two Binance executives were arrested last week. Cryptocurrency transactions equivalent to about 12-percent of Nigeria’s total income, or GDP, took place in the year to June 2023.

# And, motorsport: Max Verstappen has described his dominating win in the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix as even better than he expected. In his third successive title defence, the Dutchman steadily pulled clear of the competition to eventually finish 22-seconds up on Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez. Verstappen’s triumph marked the 55th of his F1 career as he takes an early advantage over Perez and third-place finisher, Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz, in the drivers’ standings heading to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

Stay tuned for more news………….