News 15:00

BULLETIN 18 June 3 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# The DA urges urgent parliamentary action against Ramaphosa’s court bid amid the application deadline
# Over 34-thousand unemployed qualified South Africans are recruited for the special voter registration weekend
# And cricket: Temba Bavuma is named in Time Magazine’s 100 most influential People in Sports

# The DA says Parliament’s impeachment committee lacks the legal authority to challenge president Cyril Ramaphosa’s court application to halt the Phala Phala impeachment process. This follows Parliament’s Constitutional and Legal Services Office advise to oppose the application. The DA’s Glynnis Breytenbach says pressure should be placed on the speaker of the National Assembly to file papers opposing the interdict before tomorrow’s deadline. She emphasises delays could undermine Parliament’s constitutional responsibilities:

# The Electoral Commission has appointed and trained 48-thousand-212 staff members to support this coming weekend’s special voter registration process. CEO Sy Mamabolo confirmed approximately 34-thousand of the recruits are unemployed but qualified people. He emphasises the role electoral activities play in creating temporary jobs and valuable skills development opportunities. Mamabolo says 37-thousand of those appointed are women:

# Union GIWUSA has expressed concern at the latest inflation figures. The country’s consumer inflation rate rose to 4.5-percent last month, up from 4.0-percent in April, marking the highest annual rate recorded since July 2024, when inflation stood at 4.6-percent. GIWUSA’s president, Mametlwe Sebei, says this exposes the cruel logic of monetary policies imposed by the South African Reserve Bank:

Moving abroad:

# Fifteen countries in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Europe and the Pacific endorsed a new political declaration aimed at tightening oversight of global fisheries. It hopes to force greater transparency on who is fishing, where they are operating and under which authority. The agreement, known as the Mombasa Declaration, was unveiled at the 11th Our Ocean Conference in the Kenyan city. It reflects a growing push among governments and conservation groups to treat fisheries transparency as a baseline requirement for ocean governance rather than a voluntary reform.

# Cricket: The Proteas’ Test and one-day captain, Temba Bavuma, has been named to TIME Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in Sports list. He is featured alongside global sports icons like soccer players Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, and basketball star LeBron James. Bavuma and Indian women’s star Smriti Mandhana are the only two cricketers to make the prestigious list. Time highlights Bavuma’s inspirational leadership in South Africa’s historic victory over Australia in the World Test Championship final at Lord’s, ending the nation’s 27-year major trophy drought.

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 16-rand-43-cents and the euro at 18-rand-84-cents. One British pound costs 21-rand-75-cents and Bitcoin trades at 63-thousand-855-dollars. Gold sells at four-thousand-247-dollars-38-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 78-dollars-31-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….