News 14:00

BULLETIN 24 July 2 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# Minister Mchunu says police will continue to pursue criminals threatening the peace and safety of communities
# Cosatu calls on the private sector to play its role over the Climate Change Act
# And, Olympics: The men’s sevens competition kicks off in Paris

# Minister of Police Senzo Mchunu says police will continue to pursue with unyielding determination criminals who threaten the peace and safety of communities. The ministry’s spokesperson, Kamogelo Mogotsi, says three suspects who were wanted for a string of murders, including the murder of a police sergeant last year, were shot and killed in a shootout with police at the Congo area of Inanda in KwaZulu-Natal last night:

# Cosatu says it looks forward to government, at all levels, moving with speed to implement the Climate Change Act. Spokesperson Matthew Parks says whilst the act lays a progressive foundation for the nation’s response to climate change, it can only achieve its objectives if government resources its organs to implement it. Parks says the private sector too must play its role:

# Annual inflation was 5.1-percent in June, down from 5.2-percent in May. Statistics SA says the annual inflation rate for food and non-alcoholic beverages edged lower to 4.6-percent in June. This is the lowest since September 2020. Bad news for coffee and tea drinkers is that the annual rate for hot beverages steamed to 16.5-percent in June from 14.2-percent in May. The annual rate for bread and cereals saw its first increase in 14 months. The milk, eggs and cheese category has experienced six months of slower inflation.

# Working on Fire will deploy over 200 firefighters and 15 managers to Canada tomorrow to combat Level 5 wildfires in Alberta. This marks South Africa’s sixth deployment to assist the country. It is believed that climate change has intensified heat waves, causing nearly three-thousand-600 blazes and burning 2.2-million hectares already this year. The wildfires, now 12-kilometres from Jasper National Park’s townsite, has forced 25-thousand evacuations and camping cancellations until August 6.

# Olympic Games: The men’s sevens rugby competition gets going at the Stade de France in Paris today. South Africa plays its first Pool A game against Ireland at 5.30 this afternoon, and will face the All Blacks at 9.30 tonight. The group match against Japan will start at four o’clock tomorrow afternoon. The quarterfinals will take place tomorrow night, and the semifinals and final on Saturday. The women’s competition kicks off on Sunday, with the final on Tuesday.

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 18-rand-27-cents and the euro at 19-rand-81-cents. One British pound costs 23-rand-58-cents and Bitcoin trades at 66-thousand-497-dollars-26-cents. Gold sells at two-thousand-414-dollars-30-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 81-dollars-45-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….