News 15:00

BULLETIN 6 June 3 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# Cape Town is on alert as severe weather warnings are issued
# The FF Plus in Gauteng says government should do more to protect bees
# And a solar power company says South Africa’s solar power industry held back by inconsistent regulations

# Cape Town’s Disaster Risk Management Centre has placed city departments on standby following severe weather warnings from the South African Weather Service. Yellow Level 2 alerts for disruptive rain and damaging waves are forecast from tomorrow through Monday, with damaging winds expected from this evening. Spokesperson Charlotte Powell urges residents to take precautions like clearing gutters, digging trenches around the house to divert water ways and waterproofing homes:

# The Freedom Front Plus in Gauteng says it will engage with the MEC for Agriculture, Vuyiswa Ramakgopa, and relevant department officials to ensure comprehensive measures are implemented to protect bees. This comes as the South African Bee Industry Organisation has emphasised that comprehensive steps should be taken to protect bees. The FF Plus’, Jaco Mulder, says the cultivation of approximately one-third of all food consumed worldwide depends directly on pollination by bees:

# Solar energy company GoSolr says while other countries are accelerating their solar transitions, South Africa is being held back by a tangle of regulations that penalise, rather than encourage, solar adoption. The amount of energy coming from solar now accounts for 11.5-percent of the country’s energy mix, outpacing the 6.6-percent nuclear energy contributes to the grid. In its latest Light Paper, GoSolr proposes several steps to renewable energy success. These include unifying the national framework for solar, and import tariffs on solar equipment need to be re-examined.

# The central African nation of Chad says it is suspending all visas to US citizens as a matter of reciprocity, after learning that it is one of a dozen countries whose nationals are banned from travelling to the US. President Mahamat Idriss Délby says Chad has neither planes to offer nor billions of dollars to give, but Chad has its dignity and pride. Africa is the continent worst affected by the travel ban announced by US president Donald Trump, with seven of the 12 countries on the list.

# Tennis: South Africa’s quad wheelchair player Donald Ramphadi and his doubles partner Ahmet Kaplan from Turkey lost the final of the French Open 6-3, 6-4 to number one seeds, Guy Sasson from Israel and Niels Vink from the Netherlands. Ramphadi, alongside partner Andy Lapthorne, was the 2023 French Open quad wheelchair doubles champion. South Africa’s Kgothatso Montjane has a busy day as she is playing in the women’s wheelchair singles semifinals and the final of the women’s wheelchair doubles.

# Financial indicators: The dollar trades at 17-rand-75-cents and the euro at 20-rand-28-cents. One British pound costs 24-rand-6-cents and Bitcoin trades at 103-thousand-795-dollars. Gold sells at three-thousand-362-dollars-56-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 65-dollars-1-cent a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….