News 16:00

BULLETIN 13 January 4 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# South Africa’s Platreef Mine reaches a major milestone
# OUTA calls for consequences after years of licence card tender failures
# And cricket: The Australian Women’s captain Alyssa Healy retires

# One of the world’s largest platinum mines, the Platreef project in Limpopo, produced its first concentrate and began ramping up operations toward a planned capacity of five-million-tonnes per annum. Executive co-chairperson of Ivanhoe Mines, who owns Platreef, Robert Friedland, says this comes at a time when platinum, palladium, rhodium, copper, and nickel are being recognized by countries around the globe as strategic minerals. The mine is 26-percent owned by a broad-based black economic empowerment structure, representing 150-thousand local community members.

# The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse says there must be consequences for officials responsible for years of failures in the driving licence card tender process. The organisation has welcomed a decision by the High Court in Pretoria to overturn the contract awarded to French firm IDEMIA, as serious irregularities marred the process. OUTA CEO Wayne Duvenage warns without accountability, the risk of misconduct will continue and public trust will keep eroding:

# AfriForum says the 2025 matric pass rate creates a false picture of South Africa’s education system, as many learners never reach Grade 12. The organisation notes of about 1.2-million learners who started Grade 1 in 2014, only around 778-thousand progressed to matric. AfriForum’s Carien Bloem says this reflects long-term failure. She urges the Basic Education Department to focus on early learning, school rehabilitation and exam integrity:

Moving abroad:

# The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, says he is horrified by Iranian security forces’ mounting violence against peaceful protesters. According to the UN’s own sources, hundreds of people have been killed so far. The Islamic Republic’s clerical authorities are facing the biggest demonstrations since 2022 and a rights group says the unrest has killed over 500 people. An Iranian official indicated a higher figure, at around two-thousand. Turk also voiced concern that the death penalty might be used against thousands of protesters who have been arrested.

# Cricket: Australian Women’s captain, Alyssa Healy, announced her retirement after the home series against India, ending in March. The 35-year-old wicketkeeper represented Australia in almost 300 matches since 2011, scoring over seven-thousand runs and taking 275 catches. Healy says she is still passionate about playing for her country, but had somehow lost the competitive edge that kept her driven. Cricket Australia’s CEO, Todd Greenberg, describes her as one of the game’s all-time greats who had made an immeasurable contribution on and off the field.

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 16-rand-44-cents and the euro at 19-rand-18-cents. One British pound costs 22-rand-14-cents and Bitcoin trades at 91-thousand-817-dollars. Gold sells at four-thousand-583-dollars-55-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 64-dollars-49-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….