News 11:00

BULLETIN 2 February 11 am

Good morning. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# President Ramaphosa is confident South Africa can strengthen its relations with the USA
# Saftu calls on Treasury to explore taxation and anti-corruption measures
# And Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu orders a military operation following the explosion of three buses

# President Cyril Ramaphosa believes that South Africa and the US could still work together and find solutions to their differences. This follows after both US secretary of State, Marco Rubio, and Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, have opted not to attend the G20 Foreign ministers’ meeting in Johannesburg, sending senior diplomats instead. Speaking to the media on the sidelines of the meeting, Ramaphosa said South Africa is committed to having a good relationship with the US:

# Union federation Saftu demands that government explore progressive taxation and anti-corruption measures, instead of shifting the fiscal burden onto the working class. It says it unequivocally rejects National Treasury’s proposal to increase value-added tax by two percentage points, raising it to 17-percent. Saftu’s spokesperson, Newton Masuku, says a VAT increase could trigger inflationary pressures, further eroding household incomes:

# The EFF in Gauteng is calling for a criminal investigation into then-MECs of Health and Infrastructure Development, Nomathemba Mokgethi and Tasneem Motara, over the AngloGold Ashanti Hospital corruption scandal. The Special Tribunal has declared the hospital’s lease and refurbishment contracts, worth over 600-million-rand, unlawful, unconstitutional, and invalid. The EFF’s Dumisani Baleni says the province must build internal state capacity to end reliance on corrupt private contractors, who thrive on looting public resources:

# Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered the military to conduct an intensive operation in the occupied West Bank. This comes after three empty buses exploded in a suspected terror attack in Bat Yam near Tel Aviv. According to reports, one of the unexploded devices carried a message saying “Revenge from Tulkarem”, referring to a recent Israeli military counter-terrorism operation in the West Bank. Netanyahu has also ordered the police and the Security Agency to increase preventative activity against additional attacks in cities.

# Rugby: Scotland co-captain Finn Russell has been passed fit to play against England in tomorrow’s Six Nations match at Twickenham following a concussion. The fly-half and wing Darcy Graham collided, clashed heads and had to leave the field during Scotland’s 32-18 second-round loss to Ireland. Kyle Rowe replaces Graham on the wing. Former skipper Jamie Ritchie replaces Matt Fagerson at lock and Pierre Schoeman takes over from Rory Sutherland in the front row. Sutherland and Fagerson are both on the bench in a 6-2 split.

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 18-rand-35-cents and the euro at 19-rand-26-cents. One British pound costs 23-rand-25-cents and Bitcoin trades at 98-thousand-473-dollars. Gold sells at two-thousand-931-dollars-77-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 75-dollars-88-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….