News 18:00

BULLETIN 4 December 6 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# FNB sees a 59-percent increase in virtual card spending over the Black Friday weekend
# Rugby: The sport shines at the 2024 Sport Industry Awards
# And: South Africa’s Grade 5 learners rank last in maths and science

# FNB has reported a significant increase in Black Friday spending, with customers exceeding 3.2-billion-rand in purchases, an eleven-percent rise from last year. The bank processed 20-million transactions, with a surge in the use of virtual cards, up 59-percent from last year. Digital payments grew, with 18-percent of in-store transactions and 23-percent of all spending happening online. Popular purchases included groceries, clothing, and travel. FNB encourages customers to keep using virtual cards for safer online shopping and to manage their budgets using the bank’s tools.

# Defend Our Democracy calls for former Justice minister Thembi Simelane to be removed from her new role as minister of Human Settlements over fresh corruption allegations. The allegations, dating back to her time as mayor of Polokwane in Limpopo, involve questionable investments in VBS Mutual Bank and a lavish lifestyle. The group’s executive director, Zaakirah Vadi, urges president Cyril Ramaphosa to suspend her pending the outcome of the investigation: 

# AfriForum has opposed Eskom’s proposed 36.15-percent power tariff hike at Gauteng’s public consultation today. AfriForum’s Morné Mostert emphasised that consumers, particularly low-income households, cannot bear the burden of Eskom’s mismanagement. He calls for stricter oversight from energy regulator Nersa to prevent unjustifiable expenditures in Eskom’s tariff calculations. Mostert confirms that AfriForum has submitted a petition to further challenge the increase:

# Rugby: The sport was the big winner at the annual South African Sport Industry Awards. SA Rugby’s production of the six Springboks home Tests took Event of the Year, while the #ForeverGreenForeverGold campaign won Best Campaign on Social Media. The #BokFriday campaign won Fan Engagement Award for the second year running. Chasing the Sun 2 won Audio-Visual Content of the Year Award with its marketing campaign getting the award for Campaign of the Year. Springbok prop Ox Nché was named Sports Personality of the Year.

# The financial indicators: The dollar trades at 18-rand-15-cents and the euro at 19-rand-2-cents. One British pound costs 22-rand-99-cents and Bitcoin trades at 95-thousand-673-dollars. Gold sells at two-thousand-647-dollars-36-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 73-dollars-79-cents a barrel.

# And finally: South Africa’s Grade 5 learners has ranked last out of 59 countries in maths and science with scores declining in both subjects. According to the 2023 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study, the Grade 9 learners have, meanwhile, showed improvement, with maths scores rising by eight points from 389 in 2019 to 397. South African Grade 9s outperformed countries like Jordan, Brazil, and Palestine, although scores in the Western Cape and Gauteng dropped slightly.

Stay tuned for more news………….