News 13:00

BULLETIN 2 September 1 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# The Post Office seeks 3.8-billion-rand to complete its business rescue process
# Cricket: Three-hundred South Africans and 241 overseas players will be on auction for the SA20’s next season
# And this summer has been the hottest on record in the United Kingdom

# The South African Post Office has requested an additional 3.8-billion-rand to finalise its business rescue plan. Over four-thousand-300 workers have already been retrenched and 360 branches closed. Business rescue practitioners have warned that the postal service may not complete its turnaround, which focuses on IT modernisation and digital expansion, without the funds. The practitioners lauded the Post Office’s debt reduction and improved finances since entering business rescue in 2023, but say approval of the second tranche remains critical for its survival.

# Metalworkers union Numsa regards the retrenchments by Ford Motor Company SA as an attack on the working class. The company plans to cut at least 470 jobs at its Pretoria and Eastern Cape plants in a bid to respond to evolving market demands. Numsa’s spokesperson, Phakamile Hlubi-Majola, says government must use its power not to allow companies that are beneficiaries of its incentives to retrench workers at a whim:

# The Association of Meat Importers and Exporters says Agriculture minister, John Steenhuisen, recognises that the foot-and-mouth disease is a national emergency, and the progress made in resolving the outbreak is encouraging. There are currently 274 unresolved outbreaks in five provinces, of which 180 are in KwaZulu-Natal. AMIE CEO Imameleng Mothebe welcomes Steenhuisen’s procurement of additional vaccines and the establishment of an industry–government task team on animal disease prevention:

# Cricket: Three-hundred South Africans and 241 overseas players were named for the auction for SA20s fourth season, taking place in Johannesburg next Tuesday. The league received an unprecedented over 800 player registrations this season, whereafter the list was shortened after the six teams’ reviews. Among the strong local contingent are Proteas T20 captain Aiden Markram, Quinton de Kock, Keshav Maharaj, Wiaan Mulder, Lungi Ngidi, and Dane Paterson. The internationals include England veteran Jimmy Anderson, his compatriot Moeen Ali, Australian D’Arcy Short and New Zealander Devon Conway.

# The financial indicators: The dollar trades at 17-rand-72-cents and the euro at 20-rand-61-cents. One British pound costs 23-rand-72-cents and Bitcoin trades at 110-thousand-532-dollars. Gold sells at three-thousand-479-dollars-13-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 69-dollars-8-cents a barrel.

# And finally: This year saw the United Kingdom’s hottest summer ever, which included four heatwaves. This is according to the Met Office. Britain’s summer months of June, July, and August saw a mean temperature this year of 16.1 degrees Celsius, which beats the record set in 2018 of 15.76 degrees Celsius. The Met Office’s Mark McCarthy says this record-breaking summer temperatures were made about 70 times more likely because of human-induced climate change. He says the UK could experience much hotter summers in the near future.

Stay tuned for more news………….