News 15:00

BULLETIN 27 March 3 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# President Cyril Ramaphosa urges local government to strengthen water and sanitation services
# The ANC’s leader in Cape Town resigns and joins the DA
# And rugby: James Venter and André Esterhuizen are in the Sharks’ starting team against Leinster

# President Cyril Ramaphosa has urged local governments to focus on improving water and sanitation services. Speaking at the National Water and Sanitation indaba in Midrand, Gauteng, he called for better teamwork between national and local governments, water agencies, and the private sector. Ramaphosa encouraged municipalities to use the available urban settlements development grant and municipal infrastructure grant to enhance service delivery:

Meanwhile, Rand Water CEO Sipho Mosai says Gauteng remains one of the top-performing provinces in water quality, according to Blue Drop reports. Speaking at the indaba, Mosai noted that the province has no issues with water sourcing or bulk purification. But he warns 1.7 billion liters is lost daily due to municipal inefficiencies. Mosai hopes the conference will offer solutions to assist municipalities:

# ANC leader in the City of Cape Town, Banele Majingo, has resigned and joined the DA. DA metro region chairperson, JP Smith has welcomed Majingo, who cited alignment with the party’s values of clean governance and economic growth. Majingo, a lifelong political activist, expressed admiration for the DA’s commitment to service delivery. Smith says the DA remains committed to serving Western Cape residents:

# Rugby: Sharks head coach John Plumtree has largely stuck with his side that narrowly beat Zebre last week, making two personnel changes and two positional switches for their key game against United Rugby Championship log leaders Leinster on Saturday. James Venter and André Esterhuizen come into the starting-15 after featuring off the bench last week. Venter replaces Phepsi Buthelezi, while Esterhuizen is part of a rejig of the backline which sees Ethan Hooker switch from centre to wing as Yaw Penxe takes over from injured Henry Immelman at fullback.

# The financial indicators: The dollar trades at 18-rand-22-cents and the euro at 19-rand-65-cents. One British pound costs 23-rand-57-cents and Bitcoin trades at 87-thousand-119-dollars. Gold sells at three-thousand-and-50-dollars-98-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 72-dollars-75-cents a barrel.

# And finally: There was a record 585-gigawatt increase in renewable power capacity during 2024, reaching four-thousand-448-gigawatts. This is according to the Renewable Capacity Statistics 2025 report released by the International Renewable Energy Agency. Most of the increase occurred in Asia, with the greatest share being contributed by China, which added almost 64-percent of the global added capacity in 2024. According to the report, solar and wind energy continued to expand the most, jointly accounting for 96.6-percent of all net renewable additions last year.

Stay tuned for more news………….