News 11:00

BULLETIN 25 April 11 am

Good morning. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# Minister Godongwana gazettes a bill to reverse the VAT hike
# MTN suffers a cyberattack, with its customer information being compromised
# And Saftu says the Russian-Ukrainian war is not in the interest of peace

# Finance minister Enoch Godongwana has officially gazetted the Rates and Monetary Amounts and Amendment of Revenue Laws Bill. The amended legislation, which reverses the 0.5-percent VAT hike introduced in the budget in March, will still face Parliamentary review. The scrapping of the hike leaves a 75-billion-rand expenditure hole in the fiscus. Godongwana told the SABC in making this decision, he followed Parliament’s request to engage political parties:

Agricultural organisation, TLU SA, has meanwhile said the country’s greatest shortfall is not a fiscal deficit, but a deficit of integrity, competence, and political will. The organisation has welcomed the scrapping of the VAT hike but says this is merely a plaster on an open wound. TLU SA’s Bennie van Zyl says the crisis facing the economy is not the result of a single fiscal decision, but rather decades of structurally damaging policies:

# Mobile network operator MTN says it suffered a cybersecurity breach that exposed personal data of some customers in certain markets. The company says an unidentified third party claimed to have accessed parts of its systems, but at this stage, it has found no evidence of compromise of any of its critical infrastructure platforms or services. MTN says its core network, billing systems and financial services infrastructure remain secure and fully operational. It adds that the cyberattack has been reported to the police and the Hawks.

# Union federation Saftu has condemned the ongoing war in Ukraine, saying it is not being waged in the interests of democracy or peace. Russian president Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and Moscow currently controls almost 20-percent of Ukrainian territory. Saftu says the war is driven by capitalist rivalries, military expansionism, and the quest for regional and global domination. The federation is calling for an immediate ceasefire and a diplomatic resolution.

# Soccer: The president of African governing body CAF, Patrice Motsepe, has expressed strong confidence in the success of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations to be held in Morocco. He believes the tournament will be the most successful in the competition’s history. It is scheduled from 21 December to 18 January, and Motsepe says Morocco is also set to co-host the 2030 FIFA World Cup:

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 18-rand-80-cents and the euro at 21-rand-34-cents. One British pound costs 25-rand-2-cents and Bitcoin trades at 93-thousand-756-dollars. Gold sells at three-thousand-304-dollars-60-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 65-dollars-83-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….