News 15:00

BULLETIN 23 July 3 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# AfriForum welcomes a US bill targeting corrupt ANC politicians
# Zondo urges full support for the NPA in the fight against corruption
# And the Lilian Ngoyi Street repairs in Johannesburg are 77-percent complete after explosion two-years ago

# AfriForum has welcomed the approval of a US House Committee bill that could lead to targeted sanctions against corrupt South African politicians. AfriForum’s Ernst van Zyl says the US-South African Bilateral Relations Review Act of 2025, introduced by Congressman Ronny Jackson, aims to hold individuals accountable without punishing ordinary citizens. He emphasised the bill follows rising diplomatic tensions:

# Former Chief Justice Raymond Zondo has called for the National Prosecuting Authority to be fully resourced and to reconsider its policy on withdrawing corruption charges. He was speaking at the South African Council of Churches’ Anti-Corruption Conference in Johannesburg. Zondo says public frustration is growing over dropped high-profile cases. He stresses the need for transparency to rebuild trust, saying the NPA must ensure confidence in the justice system remains intact:

# Repairs to Lilian Ngoyi Street in Johannesburg’s central business district are 77-percent complete following damage from a gas explosion two years ago. Despite some delays due to contractor issues, the City of Johannesburg has announced the road will reopen on August 31st. The Johannesburg Roads Agency’s Zweli Nyathi confirmed that most work is finished, with phase two focusing on cleaning and beautifying the street.

# Consumer inflation rose to three-percent in June, up from 2.8-percent in April and May. Statistics South Africa says the increase is largely driven by rising food prices, with food and non-alcoholic beverages recording a 15-month high inflation rate of 5.1-percent. Beef remains the main contributor, with stewing beef prices climbing over 21-percent annually. Foot-and-mouth disease is affecting supply. Stats SA’s Patrick Kelly says fuel prices continued to drop and are now over eleven-percent lower than a year ago:

# Tennis: Big names such as Katie Boulter, Sonny Kartal and Emma Raducanu will represent Great Britain in this year’s Billie Jean King Cup team competition, taking place in China in September. Boulter is 41st in the world rankings, Kartal 45th and Raducanu 46th. Great Britain will play Japan in the quarterfinal, while the United States and Kazakhstan will do battle, defending champion Italy will face host China, and Spain will come up against Ukraine. Great Britain has never won the competition.

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 17-rand-54-cents and the euro at 20-rand-57-cents. One British pound costs 23-rand-74-cents and Bitcoin trades at 118-thousand-631-dollars. Gold sells at three-thousand-427-dollars-37-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 67-dollars-50-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….