News 07:00

BULLETIN 4 March 7 am

Good morning. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# Zweli Mkhize says a VAT increase should be implemented as a last resort
# The USAID cuts shut down India’s first clinics for transgender people
# And, Simone Biles and Max Verstappen are nominated for the Laureus Awards

# Parliament’s Cooperative Governance Committee chairperson, Zweli Mkhize, says increasing the value-added tax rate should only be implemented as a last resort. Last month, Finance minister Enoch Godongwana’s budget speech was postponed after several cabinet ministers objected to a proposal to increase VAT by two percentage points. Mkhize says a VAT increase will hit the poor the hardest and municipalities will lose more revenue:

Mkhize has also expressed concern that most municipalities are not honouring payment arrangements with suppliers of bulk services like Eskom and Water Boards. Municipalities collectively owe Eskom 94-billion-rand, with one of the worst offenders being the Maluti-a-Phofung Municipality in the Free State, which owes nine-billion-rand. Mkhize says the massive Eskom debt is mostly due to poor revenue collection systems:

# COSATU will picket outside the North Gauteng High Court today in support of the Department of Health in the National Health Insurance case. The Board of Healthcare Funders and the South African Private Practitioners’ Forum are challenging the constitutionality of the NHI Act. Today’s hearing will determine which court has jurisdiction as the government argues the case should go to the Constitutional Court.

# The Mamelodi Magistrate’s Court has ruled that the National Prosecuting Authority must pay the costs of AfriForum’s Private Prosecution Unit after convicting Irvin Thabo Ngobeni of assaulting his neighbor, Nthabiseng Sebothoma. Ngobeni received a three-month suspended sentence. AfriForum’s Gerrie Nel called the ruling a milestone, highlighting the NPA’s failure to prosecute gender-based violence cases:

# India’s first medical clinic for transgender people has shut operations in three cities after US president Donald Trump stopped foreign aid to it. The clinics offered HIV treatment, gender-affirming support, and counselling services to thousands of transgender people. Trump’s crackdown on USAID has affected dozens of development programmes all around the world. In India, it has impacted the transgender community’s access to crucial medical support. A staff member told BBC the clinics catered to some six-thousand people and about 6- to 8-percent of the patients were being treated for HIV.

# Laureus Awards: Simone Biles, Max Verstappen, and Carlos Alcaraz have been nominated for the Laureus World Sports Awards. Biles, the world’s most decorated gymnast, is up for sportswoman of the year alongside world number one tennis player Aryna Sabalenka and athlete Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone. Four-time Formula One champion Max Verstappen, tennis star Carlos Alcaraz, and Olympic pole vault champion Mondo Duplantis are nominated for sportsman of the year. The USA basketball men’s national team and the F1 team McLaren are up for team of the year.

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 18-rand-60-cents and the euro at 19-rand-51-cents. One British pound costs 23-rand-63-cents and Bitcoin trades at 85-thousand-178-dollar-80-cents. Gold sells at two-thousand-884-dollars-18-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 71-dollars-9-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….