News 17:00

BULLETIN 27 March 5 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# The Constitutional Court dismisses AfriForum’s fight against the ‘Kill the Boer’ chant
# Namibia revokes visa-free access for more than 30 countries
# And tennis: Alexandra Eala becomes the first woman from the Philippes to be ranked inside the world top-100

# The Constitutional Court has dismissed AfriForum’s application for leave to appeal two court decisions that did not find the chant Kill the Boer to be hate speech. The court says the appeal has no reasonable prospects of success. AfriForum brought the case against the EFF and its leader, Julius Malema, as well as former EFF MP Mbuyiseni Ndlozi.

# President Cyril Ramaphosa says South Africa’s water security is under threat due to growing demand, climate change, and aging infrastructure. In his keynote address at the National Water and Sanitation indaba in Midrand, Gauteng, Ramaphosa said the World Resources Institute predicts sub-Saharan Africa will see the biggest rise in water demand by 2050, with South Africa using over 80-percent of its water for domestic needs:

# Cape Town mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis has announced an infrastructure investment of 39,7-billion-rand over three years during the tabling of the metro’s budget for 2025/’26. Hill-Lewis says the budget brings hope. He says major tariff structure reforms will further bring notable relief for lower income households, with just a two-percent electricity price increase compared to Eskom’s 11.32-percent nationwide increase to municipalities:

# Namibia will revoke visa-free access for more than 30 countries, including the US and the UK, from 1 April. The Ministry of Information’s Audrin Mathe, told Newzroom Afrika that the decision made in July 2023, cites a lack of reciprocity for Namibian passport holders. He also revealed that eighteen countries, including South Africa, Botswana, Angola and Zimbabwe, are unaffected by the changes:

# Tennis: Nineteen-year-old Alexandra Eala will become the first female player from the Philippines to be ranked inside the world top-100 following her brilliant form at the Miami Open in the US. She beat world number two, Iga Swiatek of Poland, in the quarterfinal after previous victories over 2017 French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia and Australian Open champion Madison Keys of the US. Eala became only the second wildcard to beat at least three Grand Slam winners in a tour-level event. She plays fourth-seeded American Jessica Pegula next.

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 18-rand-29-cents and the euro at 19-rand-72-cents. One British pound costs 23-rand-66-cents and Bitcoin trades at 86-thousand-251-dollars. Gold sells at three-thousand-and-40-dollars-4-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 72-dollars-89-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….