News 14:00

BULLETIN 19 November 2 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# The tourism sector booms ahead of the G20 summit
# Patrice Motsepe warns the crime reputation hurts South Africa’s investment appeal
# And rugby: Dan Carter is part of a star-studded line-up of presenters for the 2027 World Cup draw

# Tourism minister Patricia de Lille says South Africa will welcome over 42 confirmed heads of state for this weekend’s G20 summit. She highlighted that more than 135 business events and meetings have already boosted tourism across all nine provinces since South Africa took over the G20 presidency. De Lille says the sector created 1.8-million jobs last year, with even greater potential under the new Tourism Growth Partnership Plan. She encouraged visitors to explore all provinces:

Meanwhile, mining tycoon Patrice Motsepe says South Africa must urgently tackle its crime reputation to attract greater investment. He was speaking at the Bloomberg Africa Business Summit in Johannesburg. Motsepe says South Africa has enormous potential with world-class businesses and leadership, but safety concerns deter investors. He recalls global executives questioning whether their families would be safe, and warns the country’s bad name on crime threatens its economic ambitions:

# The Presidency says lifting gross fixed capital formation to approximately 20-percent of gross domestic product is crucial to reaching South Africa’s three-percent growth target. Project management office head Rudi Dicks told a PSG webinar that Operation Vulindlela reforms have already unlocked about 500-billion-rand in investments, mainly in renewable energy, telecoms, transport and water. However, reaching the investment goal requires about 1.6-trillion-rand annually. Dicks stressed accelerating reforms, including full unbundling of Eskom’s transmission company and Transnet’s ports and rail operations.

# Energy regulator Nersa has commenced the review process for municipal tariff applications for the 2026/27 financial year. The tariffs are set to be implemented on 1 July next year. Nersa says all municipal tariff applications must be accompanied by cost-of-supply studies. The deadline for applications is 12 December. Nersa’s Charles Hlebela says they remain committed to regulatory certainty, transparency and the protection of consumers and the electricity supply industry through lawful and predictable tariff processes:

# Rugby: A star-studded line-up will conduct the eagerly-awaited draw for the 2027 World Cup, taking place in Sydney, Australia, on 3 December. Former Wallabies captain James Slipper, All Blacks legend Dan Carter, former Australian sevens star Alicia Lucas and World Rugby chairperson Brett Robinson are the presenters. Teams will be seeded from one to 24 based on their world ranking at the time of the draw, and placed in four bands of six teams. Each pool will have one team from each of the four bands.

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 17-rand-16-cents and the euro at 19-rand-85-cents. One British pound costs 22-rand-51-cents and Bitcoin trades at 91-thousand-320-dollars. Gold sells at four-thousand-112-dollars-14-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 64-dollars-11-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….