News 07:00

BULLETIN 19 February 7 am

Good morning. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# Agriculture minister believes in growing the sector using empowerment models
# Parliament welcomes efforts to support struggling municipalities
# And a framework has been established to negotiate an end to the Russia-Ukraine war

# Agriculture minister John Steenhuisen says he is not interested in engineering equality of outcome through race or other quotas, but in promoting equal opportunities. He has criticised Sakeliga’s accusations, that the department is expanding Black Economic Empowerment and establishing a transformation fund. Steenhuisen says the scales between black and white farmers in the agricultural sector are still not balanced, adding that everyone needs to have a fair shot at accessing markets:

# Parliament’s portfolio committee on Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs says it is encouraged by efforts to arrest the dysfunctionality in many municipalities, and to reverse the deterioration of governance. The Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs briefed the committee on its turnaround plans to support struggling municipalities, in terms of funded and unfunded budgets, and debt owed to water boards and Eskom. The committee says there is still a considerable gap between the ten worst-performing and the 61 municipalities performing well, which remains a concern.

# The minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Ronald Lamola, will co-chair the 16th Ministerial Political Dialogue between South Africa and the European Union in Cape Town. He will be joined by the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Kaja Kallas, and several South African cabinet ministers. The dialogue seeks to strengthen bilateral cooperation ahead of the upcoming SA-EU summit in March. Discussions will cover trade, development, and global issues of mutual interest.

# The EFF in Gauteng says it strongly rejects the re-election of ANC councillor, Lerato Maloka, as the Sedibeng Municipality mayor. She was removed as mayor through a motion of no confidence in January over the mismanagement of municipal affairs. The EFF’s, Dumisani Baleni, says instead of prioritising service delivery, the ANC has used public office to entrench political patronage, rewarding factional loyalists at the expense of the community’s well-being:

# US Secretary of State Marco Rubio says concessions will have to be made on all sides to end the Russia-Ukraine war. He met with senior officials from Russia in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, to begin talks on improving ties and negotiating an end to the war. Rubio says a framework has been established, which includes appointing a high-level team from America, to help negotiate and work through the end of the conflict:

# Cricket: A former Pakistani player and administrator says the Champions Trophy which starts today, is about more than just the game for the country. Ramiz Raja says it will be a huge boost to Pakistan’s reputation if they succeed in staging their first major tournament in almost three decades. He says it took some convincing to the world that the country is safe after 2009’s terror attack on a visiting team’s bus. Security had been stepped up, especially in the host cities of Karachi, Lahore and Rawalpindi.

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 18-rand-41-cents and the euro at 19-rand-21-cents. One British pound costs 23-rand-19-cents and Bitcoin trades at 95-thousand-138-dollar-80-cents. Gold sells at two-thousand-931-dollars-49-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 75-dollars-96-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….