News 14:00

BULLETIN 13 August 2 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# Tatjana Smith reflects on her success and calls for greater sport support
# ActionSA welcomes the resignation of Johannesburg’s mayor
# And, an environmental non-govermental organisation leads the campaign against nuclear energy in South Africa

# We start with Olympics news: Four-time medalist Tatjana Smith expressed humility and pride after winning gold in the 100-metre breaststroke and silver in the 200-metre in Paris. This followed her two medals in Tokyo. Smith remains committed to supporting other South African athletes. She addressing the media at the OR Tambo International Airport after landing from France, and vowed to continue being a voice for improving the sport landscape in the country, despite her retirement:

# ActionSA in Johannesburg has welcomed the resignation of Kabelo Gwamanda as mayor of the metro. ActionSA’s Nobuhle Mthembu says the party’s intervention contributed to Gwamanda’s resignation. She adds residents of Johannesburg have suffered under a mayor whose ineptitude and habitual blame-shifting have led to a disastrous state of service delivery across the city:

# BetterBond says it will need to see a solid increase in new property developments in preparation for housing supply shortages if the interest rates start to drop, and activity in the property market increases. BetterBond’s head of sales, Bradd Bendall, says last month, the year-on-year increase in the average home purchase price for all buyers amounted to 7.5-percent, considerably higher than the current inflation rate of 5.1-percent:

# The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention is poised to declare Mpox a continental health emergency. The World Health Organisation is also considering an emergency declaration. The outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the worst ever reported, has spread to four new countries. With over 14-thousand cases, mostly in children, and hundreds of deaths, CDC director general Jean Kaseya highlights the urgent need for ten-million vaccine doses, though cost remains a barrier at over one-thousand-rand per dose.

# Environmental NGO Ecodefence is spearheading an awareness campaign against the dangers of nuclear energy in South Africa. The National Nuclear Regulator recently extended Eskom’s Koeberg Unit 1’s operation for another 20 years, despite safety concerns. Award-winning Russian environmentalist Vladimir Slivyak of Ecodefence says nuclear energy is dangerous, expensive and will not help to save the climate. He opposes extending nuclear reactor operations, citing increased accident risks with age.

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 18-rand-18-cents and the euro at 19-rand-85-cents. One British pound costs 23-rand-26-cents and Bitcoin trades at 58-thousand-804-dollars-1-cent. Gold sells at two-thousand-461-dollars-83-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 82-dollars-21-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….