News 07:00

BULLETIN 6 March 7 am

Good morning. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# Ramaphosa will today receive a progress report on challenges in key focal areas
# Solidarity warns about the government’s misleading information on the NHI’s tax implications
# And tennis: Simona Halep’s doping ban has been rescinded immediately

# President Cyril Ramaphosa will meet with members of Cabinet, senior business leaders, and technical experts today to receive a progress report. Technical experts from government and business will present a progress report on interventions to address challenges within the energy, transport and logistics, and crime and corruption focal areas. The presidency says the government continues collaborating with businesses to address challenges to grow the economy and restore investor and public confidence.

# Trade union Solidarity accuses the government of misleading the public about the tax implications of the National Health Insurance, stating the brochure’s mention of a small tax could amount to 14-percent of every employee’s income. The union cited discrepancies between the brochure’s claims and the actual legislation, indicating a requirement of an extra 300-billion-rand for the NHI. Solidarity’s Theuns du Buisson believes the National Treasury’s lack of budgeting for the NHI indicates it may be unworkable, urging the government to abandon the plan.

# Eskom has assured it’s on schedule to repair the ducts at the Kusile power station by December 2024, ahead of the 31 March 2025 deadline. The west stack which became inoperable due to a flue duct collapse in October 2022, led to intensified load-shedding. Eskom also announced strategies to mitigate harmful emissions and ensure community safety during repairs. This includes ongoing health screening and installing additional ambient quality monitoring equipment to specifically monitor sulfur dioxide emissions.

# The City of Johannesburg says it is actively pursuing CEOs of big companies that owe the metro millions of rands in unpaid municipal services. This is through the Walk the Floor Revenue Collection Campaign. The city’s, Nkosana Lekotjolo, says the hard truth they tell the CEOs is that the metro will no longer be able to supply them with critical services such as water and electricity, which are crucial for their businesses to operate if they don’t pay:

# The Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Naledi Pandor says powerful nations should collaborate in delivering critical humanitarian aid to Gaza. The prolonged conflict between Israel and Hamas started in October last year. During a meeting with her Danish counterpart, Lars Løkke Rasmussen, Pandor warned of dire consequences, including starvation among children and serious health issues for newborns, if assistance is not provided promptly. She calls for international support to prevent further suffering and the deterioration of the humanitarian situation in the region:

# Tennis: The Court of Arbitration for Sport has reduced Simona Halep’s doping ban from four years to nine months. The two-time Grand Slam champion was banned by the International Tennis Integrity Agency until October 2026, after testing positive for roxadustat at the US Open in August 2022. The court ruled Halep on the balance of probabilities had not taken roxadustat intentionally. Having already served a provisional suspension since October 2022, the Romanian can return to tennis immediately as the nine-month ban expired on the sixth of July last year.

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 18-rand-96-cents and the euro at 20-rand-58-cents. One British pound costs 24-rand-8-cents and Bitcoin trades at 63-thousand-455-dollars-87-cents. Gold sells at two-thousand-125-dollars-27-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 81-dollars-90-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….