News 07:00

BULLETIN 27 February 7 am

Good morning. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# Business Leadership South Africa calls for the urgent appointment of new Transnet leadership 
# The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse vows to defend motorists who receive summons for outstanding e-toll debt
# And tennis, Andy Murray hints his career could be coming to an end soon

# Business Leadership South Africa says new Transnet leadership is urgently needed. The freight rail company has lacked a permanent CEO and key executives for nearly six months. BLSA’s Busi Mavuso stresses the importance of aligning the board and executive team, citing concerns of political interference in the appointment process for a CEO. She highlights Transnet’s pivotal role in addressing the logistics crisis, urging support for deep structural reforms to enhance efficiency and competitiveness in the sector.

# The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse says it will continue with its plan to defend motorists who receive a summons from the South African National Roads Agency for outstanding e-toll debt. This follows comments by National Treasury deputy director-general of public finance, Mampho Modise, who said that Gauteng has agreed that debt should and will be collected. Outa CEO, Wayne Duvenage, says Modise’s comments are confusing as Sanral stopped issuing summonses against e-toll defaulters in 2019, and most of this debt has now been prescribed:

# City Power in Johannesburg warns employees against tampering with infrastructure and soliciting bribes. Customers are also urged to refrain from offering bribes, as it may result in potential legal consequences. This follows after a subcontractor confessed to tampering with streetlights in Eldorado Park, leading to an arrest, while in Rabie Ridge, a contractor was detained for illegally connecting a customer after seeking an 800-rand bribe over the weekend. City Power spokesperson Isaac Mangena says the utility is committed to combatting theft, vandalism, and illegal connections.

# Former US president Donald Trump has launched an appeal against the 8.77-billion-rand New York civil fraud judgment. Trump and top executives at his company, including his two older sons, were found to have schemed for years to deceive banks and insurers, by inflating their wealth on financial statements to secure loans and make deals. In the appeal, Trump’s lawyers say they want an appeals court to determine whether Judge Arthur Engoron committed errors of law or abused his discretion when he handed down the judgment earlier this month.

# Tennis: Three-time Grand Slam champion, Andy Murray, has suggested that he may only have a few months left of his playing career. The Briton returned from a set down to defeat Canadian Denis Shapovalov, 4-6, 7-6, 6-3, in the first round of the Dubai Championships. This is his 500th tour-level win on a hard court, making him only the fifth male player in history to achieve this milestone. Murray says he probably does not have too long left to play:

# The financial indicators: The dollar trades at 19-rand-30-cents and the euro at 20-rand-96-cents. One British pound costs 24-rand-48-cents and Bitcoin trades at 56-thousand-137-dollars-12-cents. Gold sells at two-thousand-33-dollars-62-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 82-dollars-39-cents a barrel.

# And finally, the American entertainment giant Paramount has signed a deal that will see its Paramount Plus streaming platform launched through MultiChoice in Africa.  Over the past two years, Africa’s largest paid TV operator signed several deals bringing stream content to its paying audiences.  MultiChoice agreements with Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, HBO, Disney, NBC Universal, Canal Plus, Sky, and now Paramount, are likely to bring all streaming content under one roof so consumers don’t have to pay multiple subscriptions.  MultiChoice has carried content from Paramount for decades through DStv and recently through Showmax too.

Stay tuned for more news………….