News 15:00

BULLETIN NEWS AGENCY 9 July 2 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# The National Assembly approves John Hlophe’s nomination to the Judicial Service Commission
# ActionSA is concerned about the Eastern Cape economy being in a recession
# And, rugby: Rassie Erasmus names the most experienced team in Springbok history to face Ireland in Durban

# The National Assembly has passed the motion for MK Party parliamentary leader John Hlophe to serve in the Judicial Service Commission, despite objections from the DA, ACDP, and FF Plus. His nomination has sparked mixed reactions due to his impeachment as Western Cape judge president for attempting to influence Constitutional Court justices in a case involving former president Jacob Zuma. EFF deputy president Floyd Shivambu highlights Hlophe’s Cambridge PhD in defence of his eligibility:

# ActionSA in the Eastern Cape is concerned about the financial state of the province. An Eastern Cape Socio-Economic Consultative Council report shows the provincial economy entered a recession in the first quarter of this year. More than 77-thousand workers in the province lost their jobs in the first quarter, resulting in an unemployment rate of 42.4-percent. ActionSA’s Athol Trollip says urgent action is needed to turn this situation around:

# Gauteng MEC for Education, Sport, Arts, Culture and Recreation, Matome Chiloane, says the department is using all possible mitigations to ensure that all applicants for Grade 1 and 8 are placed for the 2025 academic year. Chiloane briefed the media on the 2025 online admissions in Midrand. He says applicants who may not have access to internet or resources required to apply, can visit any one of the 80 decentralised walk-in centres located across the 15 education districts where officials will safely assist with applications:

# China lashed out at NATO after the defence alliance’s chief accused it of supporting Russia’s war in Ukraine on the eve of a summit in Washington. US President Joe Biden is hosting leaders of the 32-nation Transatlantic alliance for three days from today, as well as the leaders of Australia, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg named China, Iran, and North Korea as supporting and enabling Russia’s war against Ukraine. China says NATO uses the country as an excuse to move eastward and stir up regional tensions.

# Rugby: Head coach Rassie Erasmus named the most experienced team in Springbok history when he retained the same 23-man matchday squad which defeated Ireland 27-20 in Pretoria last week. Erasmus named an unchanged starting-15 with a total of 990 combined Test caps among them for the second Test at Kings Park in Durban on Saturday. Damian de Allende and Jesse Kriel will become the most-capped centre pairing in South African history when they combine in the midfield for the 30th time in Tests.

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 18-rand-17-cents and the euro at 19-rand-66-cents. One British pound costs 23-rand-26-cents and Bitcoin trades at 57-thousand-336-dollars-47-cents. Gold sells at two-thousand-360-dollars-95-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 85-dollars-38-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….