News 18:00

BULLETIN 22 August 6 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# OUTA says ending deputy minister posts could save taxpayers hundreds of millions of rand annually
# AfriForum takes Nersa to court over the flawed electricity tariff process
# And cricket: Newlands will host the final of the SA20’s fourth season in January

# The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse has expressed support for ActionSA’s proposed bill in Parliament aimed at reforming the executive and cabinet structure. The Constitution Twenty-Second Amendment Bill seeks to scrap deputy ministers, introduce parliamentary checks on appointments, and let the National Assembly remove ministers through no-confidence motions. OUTA’s Rachel Fischer says deputy ministers currently cost taxpayers over 287-million-rand a year, not including extra perks:

# 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:

# The Gauteng Education Department says infrastructure remains one of its biggest challenges. MEC Matome Chiloane outlined interventions, including over two-thousand self-build classrooms since 2020, adding space for more than 76-thousand learners. He says a further one-thousand-745 classrooms are being built, and more emergency mobile classrooms have also been deployed to 223 schools as a temporary measure to ease overcrowding:

# Cricket: The home ground of defending champions M-I Cape Town, Newlands, will host the final of the fourth season of the SA20 on the 25th of January next year. League commissioner Graeme Smith also announced the three play-off matches will be played in Durban, Centurion and the Wanderers in Johannesburg, respectively. The player auction will take place on the ninth of next month, when a maximum of 131-million-rand may be spent. Pre-sale registrations for tickets will close on the 15th, with the tournament starting on 26 December.

# The financial indicators: The dollar trades at 17-rand-47-cents and the euro at 20-rand-43-cents. One British pound costs 23-rand-58-cents and Bitcoin trades at 114-thousand-904-dollars. Gold sells at three-thousand-363-dollars-77-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 67-dollars-33-cents a barrel. 

# And finally: The eThekwini Municipality says the 14th Durban Fashion Fair promises to be an exhilarating showcase of talent of both fashion designers and models. Central to this initiative is the DFF Class of 2025 Model Training and Bootcamp, which is currently in full swing. The current intake includes 24 participants, of which 14 are female models and ten male models. Participant Mandisa Khuboni says she is excited to showcase her talents during the fair’s runway shows.

Stay tuned for more news………….