News 13:00

BULLETIN 19 August 1 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# The Competition Commission appeals the rand manipulation case in the Constitutional Court
# A forum says Ramaphosa must be held liable for wasting taxpayers’ money on the national convention
# And tennis: The US Open’s new-look mixed doubles tournament starts in New York today

# The Competition Commission is appealing the Competition Appeal Court’s ruling in the rand manipulation case at the Constitutional Court. The case, set for hearing from today to Friday, seeks to revive charges against 13 banks accused of rigging the US dollar to the South African Rand exchange rate between 2007 and 2013. Initially, 28 banks were implicated with most of the cases dismissed, including against South African banks. The commission argues the banks should answer allegations and questions jurisdiction over foreign firms.

# Activists and Citizens Forum says president Cyril Ramaphosa must be held personally liable for the waste of taxpayers’ money on the national convention held in Pretoria last week. A total of 450-million-rand was earmarked for the national dialogue, of which 20-million-rand has already been spent on the first convention. The forum’s spokesperson, Dennis Bloem, says this was a money-wasting event as no concrete solutions came out of it, just the same old shop-talk:

# The Freedom Front Plus says it has long warned about government deploying Cuban doctors in South Africa, especially given the country’s large number of unemployed qualified medical professionals. South Africa has hosted Cuban doctors since the 1996 Mandela-Castro health cooperation agreement. The US government plans to revoke the visas of Brazilian, African and Caribbean government officials, who allow the Cuban government to send doctors to their countries. The FF Plus’ Philip van Staden says government must hire more local doctors:

# A son of Norway’s crown princess has been charged with 32 offences including four rapes and several acts of violence and assault. Marius Borg Hoiby, who was born from a relationship before Crown Princess Mette-Marit married Crown Prince Haakon, has been under investigation since his arrest on 4 August last year on suspicion of assaulting a girlfriend. The charges also include domestic abuse against a former partner and several counts of violence, disturbing the peace, vandalism and violation of restraining orders against another former partner.

# Tennis: The new-look mixed doubles tournament at the US Open will be played at Flushing Meadows in New York today and tomorrow, with the main tournament starting on Sunday. The big names have entered this year – among them Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz, teaming up with Britain’s Emma Raducanu, and Iga Swiatek of Poland together with Sweden’s Casper Ruud. Veteran Venus Williams and her US compatriot Reilly Opelka will play together. The winners will receive 17.6-million-rand.

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 17-rand-62-cents and the euro at 20-rand-57-cents. One British pound costs 23-rand-81-cents and Bitcoin trades at 115-thousand-472-dollars. Gold sells at three-thousand-338-dollars-1-cent a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 65-dollars-45-cents a barrel. 

Stay tuned for more news………….