News 14:00

BULLETIN 4 September 2 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# Dali Mpofu says president Cyril Ramaphosa must answer questions over the Phala Phala money
# Volkswagen Germany announces major job cuts and plant closures
# And rugby: Swys de Bruin quits as the Bok Women’s head coach following a dispute with SA Rugby

# The MK Party’s legal representative, Dali Mpofu, says president Cyril Ramaphosa cannot be saved until he explains what happened to the millions of rand stolen from his farm, Phala Phala. Mpofu was addressing the Western Cape High Court, where Ramaphosa is challenging findings of the Section 89 independent panel. He says the Constitutional Court’s decision on proposing an impeachment committee determined whether there is a case to answer:

# Agriculture minister Willie Aucamp has announced a breakthrough in export negotiations with Egypt, which could provide a significant boost to South Africa’s red meat industry. He says the agreement is a major milestone for the agricultural sector, which has been battling one of the country’s worst foot-and-mouth disease outbreaks in decades. Aucamp says South Africa and Egypt have successfully concluded negotiations on a Veterinary Health Certificate governing the export of red meat from South Africa to Egypt.

# Agricultural organisation TLU SA is calling on government to take decisive action to address the diversion of firearms from state custody into criminal hands. It highlights the case of former police officer Christiaan Prinsloo, who was involved in a network that supplied firearms from police custody to criminals between 2007 and 2015. TLU SA’s Bennie van Zyl says these weapons should have been destroyed, but were instead sold to gangs on the Cape Flats:

Moving abroad:

# Automaker Volkswagen has approved a sweeping cost-cutting plan that would cut 50-thousand jobs, slim the company’s model line by half and end car production at four German plants. The company says it has excess production capacity of 500-thousand vehicles in Europe, and a competitive future production allocation cannot be secured for plants in Emden, Zwickau, Hanover and Neckarsulm. Volkswagen, which has around 650-thousand employees, reported a 30-percent drop in after-tax earnings for the first half of the year as sales took a hit in China.

# Rugby: Swys de Bruin has resigned as the Springbok Women’s head coach, reportedly over a dispute with SA Rugby over unpaid bonuses and interference. The team is preparing for the historic first-ever home Test against New Zealand’s Black Ferns in Johannesburg tomorrow. It will be a precursor to the men’s encounter at the FNB Stadium. According to Rapport, the bonuses relate to the team’s tours to Kenya and Fiji, which De Bruin did not personally attend. His contract ran through to the 2029 World Cup.

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 15-rand-97-cents and the euro at 18-rand-56-cents. One British pound costs 21-rand-61-cents and Bitcoin trades at 80-thousand-832-dollars. Gold sells at four-thousand-471-dollars-43-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 97-dollars-16-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….