News 13:00
BULLETIN 24 September 1 pm
Good afternoon. I am……..
In this bulletin:
# Minister Lamola denounces the US Refugee Programme as race-based
# Jacob Zuma is confident the MK Party will do well in local government elections
# And a judge orders the Trump administration to reinstate White House access to CNN, MS Now and Politico
# The minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Ronald Lamola, says government does not support the US Refugee Admissions Programme for South Africans. US president Donald Trump established the resettlement initiative in February 2025, alleging that Afrikaners faced state-sponsored racial discrimination, violence, and confiscation of their land. In May, Trump raised the annual US refugee admissions ceiling from seven-thousand-500 to 17-thousand-500. Speaking at an event in New York, Lamola says the programme is not refugee-based but race-based:
# ActionSA has defended the party’s decision to submit only one candidate on each proportional representation list in municipalities it is contesting in the local government elections. This comes as the DA has filed a legal challenge against ActionSA, EFF, MK Party and the GOOD Party at the Electoral Court, accusing them of deliberately concealing candidates from voters. ActionSA’s Michael Beaumont has accused the DA of attempting to use the courts for its own agenda:
# MK Party president Jacob Zuma has expressed confidence that his party will perform well in the November local government elections, which it is contesting for the first time. The party is still awaiting judgment in its latest challenge over the 2024 general elections, after the Johannesburg High Court reserved judgment in June. It claims a two-hour outage of the Electoral Commission’s results dashboard was linked to the manipulation of election results. Zuma has maintained that the party’s leadership changes won’t derail its aspirations to win some municipalities.
# BetterBond says the latest 25-basis-point interest rate hike will increase monthly bond repayments and put more pressure on homeowners. The prime lending rate has now risen to 10.75-percent. CEO Stephan Potgieter says the increase is a precaution against possible oil price shocks linked to conflict in the Middle East. Potgieter added the resilient rand and easing inflation could help create room for interest rate cuts in future:
# A US federal judge has ordered president Donald Trump’s administration to immediately reinstate CNN, MS NOW and Politico’s access to the White House. This comes after the news outlets were banned from the premises, with Trump accusing them of writing or reporting fiction or lies. The three outlets sued the administration, saying the ban violated the US constitution’s first amendment protections for free speech and a free press. Judge Timothy Kelly found that the revocation of the journalists’ press badges was done without constitutionally adequate due process.
# And motorsport: Lewis Hamilton says he hopes Formula One’s scheduled races in Qatar and Abu Dhabi will go ahead despite the continuing conflict involving Iran. Speaking in Baku yesterday, the seven-time world champion said he would personally like to race in the Middle East and trusts Formula One chief executive Stefano Domenicali to make the right decision. The Bahrain and Saudi Arabian Grands Prix were cancelled earlier this season because of the conflict. A back-up plan to stage the season-ending race at Imola in Italy is in place, with a decision on the final races expected by mid-October.
Stay tuned for more news………….