News 17:00

BULLETIN 22 August 5 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# AfriForum takes Nersa to court over the flawed electricity tariff process
# A UN-backed report confirms famine in Gaza City for the first time
# And cricket: South Africa clinches the ODI series against Australia with one match to come

# AfriForum has approached the High Court in Pretoria to have the energy regulator Nersa’s process for approving municipal electricity tariff increases declared invalid. The organisation says the public was not given enough time to comment, and most municipalities failed to submit proper cost-of-supply studies, despite Nersa’s claims. AfriForum’s Morné Mostert says they are asking the court to enforce clear timelines for future public participation and ensure residents are properly informed about tariff applications:

# Minister of Transport Barbara Creecy says applications for additional or new freight rail route allocations will open next week. This follows after eleven new freight rail operators have been approved to use Transnet’s rail network from next year. According to Creecy, the process will allow more companies to apply for slots in the 2025/26 timetable as part of government’s plan to expand private sector participation in the rail system:

# The City of Cape Town says it will realign the dial-a-ride service from 8 September due to unsustainable costs, affecting around 260 active users. Mayoral committee member for Urban Mobility, Rob Quintas, says the service, which was originally for wheelchair users and people with serious mobility issues, is too expensive to run, costing the city around 31-thousand-rand a month per user and losing nearly one-million-rand each month:

Moving abroad:

# A United Nations-backed food security body says famine has been confirmed in Gaza City and its surrounding area for the first time. The Integrated Acute Food Security body, IPC, says over half-a-million people in the strip are facing starvation, destitution and death, with catastrophic conditions projected to expand to surrounding towns next month. Israel’s Foreign Ministry rejected the report, saying there is no famine in Gaza. Meanwhile, UN chief António Guterres described the crisis as a man-made disaster and called for unrestricted humanitarian access to Gaza.

# Cricket: South Africa clinched the three-match one-day series against Australia with another impressive victory in the second encounter in Mackay. Aiden Markram won the toss and decided to bat first, and South Africa was bowled out for 277 after Matthew Breetzke contributed 88 and Tristan Stubbs 74. Adam Zampa took three wickets. The hosts lost their final wicket with the score on 193 after Lungu Ngidi claimed five scalps, handing the Proteas victory by 83 runs. The final ODI will be played on Sunday, also in Mackay.

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 17-rand-61-cents and the euro at 20-rand-45-cents. One British pound costs 23-rand-64-cents and Bitcoin trades at 112-thousand-119-dollars. Gold sells at three-thousand-327-dollars-92-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 67-dollars-13-cents a barrel. 

Stay tuned for more news………….