News 07:00

BULLETIN 21 February 7 am

Good morning. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# President Ramaphosa wants debt sustainability for low-income countries
# The operations at three ports of entry are temporarily suspended due to flooding
# And, the US Treasury imposes sanctions on leaders in Rwanda

# President Cyril Ramaphosa has urged the G20 to renew its efforts to advance debt sustainability, with a particular emphasis on African countries. The president delivered the opening address at Thursday’s G20 foreign ministers’ meeting at Nasrec in Johannesburg. South Africa is hosting the first meeting of foreign ministers since taking over the G20 presidency from Brazil in December. Ramaphosa says more than 3.3-billion people live in countries where interest payments on debt exceed education or health spending:

# The DA says the rise in learner pregnancies, including one-thousand-424 cases among girls aged ten to 14, exposes a crisis of statutory rape that demands urgent action. According to the Education Department, over 67-thousand girls aged 15 to 19 also gave birth in the first three quarters of last year. The DA’s Angel Khanyile calls for stronger awareness campaigns and better support for pregnant learners to break the cycle of poverty and school dropouts:

# The Special Tribunal has declared the Anglo Gold Ashanti Hospital lease and refurbishment contracts, worth over 600-million-rand, unlawful, unconstitutional, and invalid. This comes after the Special Investigating Unit applied to set aside the contracts and recover the money. The Gauteng Departments of Health and Infrastructure Development awarded the contracts to Western Levels Deep Mine Hospital, formerly owned by AngloGold Ashanti, at the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic. The SIU says the procurement process was unlawful, as it failed to adhere to the required transparent and competitive bidding procedures.

# The Border Management Authority has temporarily suspended operations at three ports of entry, Pont Drift, Makgobistad, and Derdepoort, due to severe flooding. The ports link South Africa and Botswana. Border Management Authority’s, Mmemme Mogotsi, says travellers and commercial operators are advised to use Ramatlabama, Kopfontein, and Skilpadshek ports of entry, for cross-border movement. She adds that they will continue to monitor the situation closely:

# The US Treasury Department has imposed sanctions against two individuals and two entities, including Rwanda’s State for Regional Integration minister, James Kabarebe, over the violence in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. The department says Kabarebe is central to Rwanda’s support for the M23 militant group, which is responsible for human rights abuses in the DRC. M23 and Congo River Alliance senior member, Lawrence Kanyuka Kingston, and two companies he controls in Britain and France, have also been sanctioned. The department says M23’s aggression has undermined the DRC’s territorial integrity.

# Cricket: The Proteas face Afghanistan in their opening match of the Champions Trophy in Karachi today. Experts believe the opponents could be hard to beat since playing conditions in Pakistan are very similar to that in the neighbouring country. The wicket is expected to be flat, meaning it could be a spinners’ paradise. Keshav Maharaj and Tabraiz Shamsi are the only two spinners in South Africa’s squad. The Proteas have lost their last six ODIs and conceded over 300 runs in each of the last four.

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 18-rand-34-cents and the euro at 19-rand-24-cents. One British pound costs 23-rand-22-cents and Bitcoin trades at 98-thousand-348-dollar-80-cents. Gold sells at two-thousand-928-dollars-68-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 76-dollars-38-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….