NEWSFLASH NEWS AGENCY 7 February 7 am

Good morning,

In this bulletin:

# Business Leadership SA says the government cannot implement a basic income grant blindly
# The DA submits its End Cadre Deployment Bill to the Zondo Commission
# And, the Prince of Wales celebrates his mother on the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee

# Business Leadership South Africa says it is all for extending the level of social assistance but it does not support going blindly into a basic income grant. President Cyril Ramaphosa is under pressure to make the 350-rand special Covid-19 grant permanent. BLSA president Busi Mavuso says important decisions have to be made to determine the level of financial support initially and with increases in future years factored in. She adds that this will have to go along with meticulous scenario planning to determine the inevitable consequences of any tax hikes imposed to finance the grant.

# The DA has submitted a copy of its End Cadre Deployment Bill to the State Capture Commission. The commission is drawing up the last of its three reports. The DA’s Leon Schreiber says they are encouraged by the recommendations contained in the second report. It suggests assigning appointing powers in the public sector to an independent body. Schreiber says this will prevent the ANC from continuing to deploy cadres who captured the state:

Play sound: ENGLeonSchreiber

# South Africa has recorded one-thousand-752 new Covid-19 cases in the past 24 hours. The majority of new cases are from Gauteng with 34-percent, followed by KwaZulu-Natal with 17-percent and the Western Cape accounting for 15-percent. There has been an increase of 20 hospital admissions in the past 24 hours. A further eight Covid-19 related deaths have been recorded taking the total of fatalities to 95-thousand-835. A total of three-thousand-831 vaccines were administered in the last 24 hours. The country’s recovery rate is around 96-percent.

# The minister of Social Development, Lindiwe Zulu, will conduct a series of service delivery oversight visits to the Western Cape tomorrow, in the run-up to this year’s state of the nation address. The department’s spokesperson, Lumka Oliphant, says they will interact with a number of community-based organisations working on training, skills and employment opportunities for young people. The group is disproportionately affected by the record-high levels of unemployment:

Play sound: ENGLumkaOliphant

# Rugby: France began their Six Nations campaign with a convincing 37-10 bonus-point win over Italy at Stade de France in Paris yesterday evening. Man of the match Gabin Villiere scored a hat-trick of tries as he helped his nation to victory in their bid for a first Six Nations title since 2010. Villiere’s hat-trick was the first by a French player in the competition since Vincent Clerc in 2008. France is level with Ireland on five points at the top of the table after the opening round, ahead of their meeting in Paris on Saturday. Italy faces England in Rome on Sunday.

# Financial indicators: The dollar is trading at 15-rand-45-cents and the euro at 17-rand-67-cents. One British pound costs 20-rand-89-cents and Bitcoin trades at 42-thousand-523-dollar-1-cents. Gold is selling at one thousand-810-dollars-6-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 93-dollars-19-cents a barrel.

# And finally, the Prince of Wales says the Queen’s devotion to the welfare of all her people inspires still greater admiration with each passing year. Queen Elizabeth celebrated her 70 years on the throne privately yesterday. She started her reign when she was 25-years-old after her father died on the sixth of February 1952. The Queen released a statement in which she said it was her sincere wish that the Duchess of Cornwall, Camilla, be known as Queen Consort when Charles becomes King. The Prince of Wales says he is deeply conscious of the honour represented by his mother’s wish.

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