News 08:00

BULLETIN 29 April 8 am

Good morning. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# Parliament welcomes the out-of-court settlement on the VAT case
# Panyaza Lesufi appoints a forensic firm to probe office lease contracts
# And the conclave to elect a new Pope meets on 7 May

# Parliament’s presiding officers welcome the agreement reached in the court proceedings concerning the value-added tax increase and the adoption of the fiscal framework. The Western Cape High Court has suspended the proposed 0.5-percent VAT increase, formally scrapping the measure. The court made the order in the DA and EFF’s court challenge to have the VAT rate adjustment set aside. Parliament’s spokesperson, Moloto Mothapo, says this brings a resolution to a complex matter of significant national importance:

Meanwhile, Cosatu says the halting of the VAT hike will provide relief to millions of workers, who have been struggling to cope with the rising cost of living. The Western Cape High Court suspended the VAT increase, preventing it from taking effect on May 1st. Cosatu’s spokesperson, Matthew Parks, says what is needed now is a simple surgical adjustment of the budget’s expenditure allocations:

# Gauteng premier Panyaza Lesufi has appointed an independent forensic firm to investigate allegations of wasteful expenditure associated with renting office space for government departments. MEC for Infrastructure Development Jacob Mamabolo recently revealed that 34-million-rand per month was being spent on renting office space, despite the provincial government owning 41 vacant buildings. The provincial government’s spokesperson, Vuyo Mhaga, says the probe will assess whether the leasing arrangement provides value for money and any potential wrongdoing:

# The conclave to elect a new Pope will begin behind closed doors in the Sistine Chapel on May 7. This follows the funeral of Pope Francis, who died on Easter Monday. Of the 135 members of the College of Cardinals under the age of 80 who are eligible to appoint the next pontiff, Pope Francis installed 108 of them. Most of the cardinals with voting power, 53, are European. A new pope requires a two-thirds majority. The previous two conclaves, held in 2005 and 2013, lasted two days.

# Cricket: Fourteen-year-old Vaibhav Suryavanshi was the star of the show as the Rajasthan Royals defeated the Gujarat Titans by eight wickets in the Indian Premier League. Gujarat posted 209 for four. In reply, Suryavanshi scored the second-fastest century in IPL history and became the youngest player to record a T20 century. He was bowled out for 101 from 38 balls as Rajasthan reached the target with 25 balls and eight wickets to spare. This victory keeps Rajasthan’s slim hopes of making the knockout stages.

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 18-rand-53-cents and the euro at 21-rand-11-cents. One British pound costs 24-rand-86-cents and Bitcoin trades at 94-thousand-747-dollars. Gold sells at three-thousand-314-dollars-68-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 64-dollars-40-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….