News 13:00

BULLETIN 4 March 1 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# Fuel prices are set to rise on Wednesday
# The speaker of the National Assembly denies allegations of 2.3-million-rand bribes
# And tennis: Alcaraz edges Nadal in Vegas exhibition match 

# The Department of Mineral Resources and Energy has given an outlook for what motorists should expect to be paying for fuel from Wednesday. The department’s Robert Maake says the fuel price hikes this month will affect petrol, diesel, paraffin, and liquefied petroleum gas. He says the increases are linked to elevated oil prices, a depreciating rand against the US dollar, and unchanged slate levels at zero-cents-per-litre:

# National Assembly speaker, Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, has strongly denied being involved in corrupt activities when she was minister of Defence and Military Veterans. She is accused of taking bribes totalling 2.3-million-rand from a South African National Defence Force contractor when she was still the minister. The speaker is reportedly implicated in an affidavit submitted to the Investigative Directorate by the owner of a company responsible for transporting SANDF cargo for military missions, Umkhombe Marine. Mapisa-Nqakula says she will cooperate with any formal investigation into these allegations.

# ActionSA has confirmed it has initiated legal proceedings to obtain the debt settlement agreement entered into between the ANC and Ezulweni Investments. This comes after the ANC disclosed donations of only ten-million-rand in the same quarter it communicated its 102-million-rand debt settlement with Ezulweni. ActionSA’s national chairperson, Michael Beaumont, says they have also requested the IEC Political Party Funding Unit to investigate this agreement for alleged breaches of the Party Funding Act:

# Mediators and Hamas envoys have made “significant progress” towards a Gaza truce, Egyptian state-linked TV reported as the talks in Cairo entered a second day today. After weeks of diplomatic efforts, Egypt, Qatar and the United States have been scrambling to lock in a proposed six-week truce in the war between Israel and Hamas before Ramadan starts next week. The proposal also includes the release of hostages abducted during Hamas’s October 7 attack that sparked the war, in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.

# Tennis: World number two Carlos Alcaraz just succeeded in beating his famous Spanish compatriot Rafael Nadal in their exhibition match in Las Vegas, America. Nadal won the first set and Alcaraz the second, with Alcaraz edging out Nadal 14-12 in the deciding tiebreaker. Both players used the game as preparation for the Indian Wells Masters, starting on Friday. A hip injury kept Nadal out of the game for a year before his comeback in Australia in January was cut short with a small muscle tear.

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 19-rand and the euro at 20-rand-61-cents. One British pound costs 24-rand-8-cents and Bitcoin trades at 65-thousand-455-dollars-86-cents. Gold sells at two-thousand-and-83-dollars-79-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 83-dollars-57-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news……