News 14:00

BULLETIN 12 March 2 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# The DA says the Presidency allows suspended Directors General to sit at home 
# Numsa plans to strike at the Road Accident Fund and calls for the removal of the CEO 
# And otorsport: Felipe Massa files a lawsuit over 2008’s F1 championship 

# The DA says the presidency has allowed five suspended Directors General to sit at home at a massive cost of 10.5-million-rand to the South African taxpayer. The DA’s Mimmy Gondwe says this was revealed by the Presidency in reply to a written Parliamentary question on the total number of DGs that were on suspension with full pay in the past three financial years:

# Metalworkers’ union Numsa plans to shut down all Road Accident Fund offices on Thursday. The union, which will protest outside the National Department of Transport’s offices in Pretoria, is demanding the removal of the fund’s CEO, Collins Letsoalo. Numsa’s spokesperson, Phakamile Hlubi-Majola, says Letsoalo is single-handedly destroying the fund, and he believes no-one will hold him accountable for his shocking behaviour:

# The US Treasury has imposed sanctions on 16 individuals and entities across the Horn of Africa and the Middle East, accusing them of laundering money for the Al-Shabaab Islamist militant group. The Treasury says the expansive business network was part of an international fundraising and money-laundering web for the Al-Qaeda-linked group operating in Somalia. The targeted entities include Dubai-based fintech Haleel Commodities LLC with branches and subsidiaries in Kenya, Somalia, Uganda and Cyprus. A Kenyan bus company that supported Al-Shabaab’s logistics were also slapped with sanctions.

# Motorsport: Former Formula One driver Felipe Massa filed a lawsuit over the result of a Grand Prix race in 2008 that helped British driver Lewis Hamilton to snatch the world championship from him. Nelson Piquet Junior later admitted his Renault team ordered him to deliberately cause a crash in Singapore, leading to Massa, who was leading in his Ferrari, ending 13th. Hamilton ended the season just one point ahead of Massa. Former CEO Bernie Ecclestone admitted last year the executives were aware of the cover-up.

# The financial indicators: The dollar trades at 18-rand-58-cents and the euro at 20-rand-32-cents. One British pound costs 23-rand-77-cents and Bitcoin trades at 71-thousand-748-dollars-31-cents. Gold sells at two-thousand-176-dollars-48-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 82-dollars-80-cents a barrel.

# And finally: South Africans now earn on average what they did in 2006, adjusting for inflation, due to the country’s economic downturn since 2013. With gross domestic product per capita in decline, Business Leadership South Africa’s CEO, Busi Mavuso, urges urgent action to reverse the trend. She highlights infrastructure failures and logistics challenges as key obstacles to growth, emphasising the need for collaboration between government and business to address these issues and spur economic recovery.

Stay tuned for more news………….