News 15:00

BULLETIN 19 August 3 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# The Bureau for Economic Research says shifting the inflation target to three-percent will reshape South Africa’s economic outlook
# The Competition Commission outlines eight topics in the rand manipulation case
# And Qantas is hit with a record fine for illegal layoffs during the pandemic

# The Bureau for Economic Research says South Africa’s economic outlook depends on whether the government and the South African Reserve Bank work together on a new three-percent inflation goal. In its latest report, the bureau warns strict government spending and high interest rates are slowing growth, with the gross domestic product expected to grow below one-percent this year. It says an early agreement on the target could lift growth to two-percent, but poor cooperation would keep inflation high, prolong economic stagnation, and increase unemployment.

# The Competition Commission’s legal representative, Tembeka Ngcukaitobi, has outlined eight key topics for the ongoing rand manipulation case. The case continues to examine alleged collusion by 13 banks in the US dollar – South African rand exchange rate between 2007 and 2013. Ngcukaitobi says they will address eight issues, including a single overarching infringement, tribunal jurisdiction, economic evidence, authority of traders, and alleged non-compliance with the Competition Appeal Court’s order:

# ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba described the death of a four-year-old Eldorado Park girl, Nikita, allegedly abused by her father, as a stark example of South Africa’s gender-based violence crisis. Both parents abandoned bail yesterday. Speaking at the funeral in Johannesburg, Mashaba warned that without ethical leadership and urgent action, the country risks losing more children to abuse. He called for united action to confront the pandemic:

Moving abroad:

# An Australian court has fined airline giant Qantas more than a billion-rand for illegally sacking about one-thousand-800 ground workers during the Covid-19 pandemic. The fine is the largest imposed by a court for violations of industrial relations laws in the country’s history. In his judgement, Federal Court Justice Michael Lee said he wanted the fine to act as a deterrent to other employers. The airline has agreed to pay the fine and said the ruling holds it accountable for actions that caused real harm to its employees.

# Soccer: Tickets have sold out for the second leg of the MTN8 semifinal between Mamelodi Sundowns and Orlando Pirates at Lucas Moripe Stadium in Pretoria this Saturday at 3 pm. The first leg ended in a one-all draw, with Sundowns taking an early lead through Teboho Mokoena before Kamogelo Sebelebele equalised for Pirates. A winner must be decided to see who advances to the final against either Sekhukhune or Stellenbosch. Both teams will play league matches  tomorrow ahead of the big clash.

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 17-rand-59-cents and the euro at 20-rand-56-cents. One British pound costs 23-rand-78-cents and Bitcoin trades at 115-thousand-655-dollars. Gold sells at three-thousand-342-dollars-95-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 65-dollars-45-cents a barrel. 

Stay tuned for more news………….