News 14:00

BULLETIN 20 March 2 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# Bad news for interest rates as inflation rises to 5.6-percent in February 
# Jacob Zuma’s attempt to remove prosecutor Billy Downer from his corruption case is dismissed again
# And tennis: Aryna (Arina) Sabalenka intends to play in Miami despite her boyfriend’s death

# Annual consumer inflation quickened in February, rising to 5.6-percent from 5.3-percent in January and 5.1-percent in December. Product categories that drove the upward momentum include housing and utilities, insurance, food and non-alcoholic beverages, and transport. Statistics SA noted a 10.3-percent month-on-month increase in medical aid premiums, while all types of insurance have increased over the past year. Eggs are 30.7-percent more expensive than a year ago. Annual rice inflation increased further to 25-percent. Several products are cheaper than a year ago, including bread flour, rusks, ready-mix flour, and pasta.

# The High Court in Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal, has dismissed former president Jacob Zuma’s second bid to have prosecutor Billy Downer removed from his arms deal corruption case. Judge Nkosinathi Chili found Zuma failed to show that Downer’s continued role as a prosecutor would violate his right to a fair trial. Zuma’s legal counsel, Dali Mpofu, says they want to appeal the ruling:

# The Freedom Front Plus in Gauteng says it holds Rand Water directly accountable for water wastage, as well as its possible share in the recent water crisis in Johannesburg and the Mogale City Local Municipality. Amanda de Lange of the Freedom Front Plus says nearly two-thousand kilolitres of water gushes from Rand Water’s three burst water supply pipelines every second:

# ActionSA says president Cyril Ramaphosa’s admission that the ANC government has neglected critical infrastructure maintenance is concerning. Addressing the Infrastructure Symposium in Cape Town, Ramaphosa said there was a tendency to develop good infrastructure but there is a failure to maintain it. ActionSA’s Michael Beaumont says South Africa needs targeted, long-term plans of investing in key infrastructure projects, which will rebuild the foundations of the country’s economy:

# Tennis: World number two Aryna Sabalenka will compete in the Miami Open despite the death of her boyfriend. Local police regard the death of 42-year-old former Belarusian ice hockey player Konstantin Koltsov as suicide. He accompanied Sabalenka to the event in the American city. Meanwhile, it is reported that other players have rallied around Sabalenka, including Paula Badosa of Spain, who she will play in her first match on Friday. Badosa, a close friend of the Belarusian, admitted it would be uncomfortable.

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 18-rand-91-cents and the euro at 20-rand-51-cents. One British pound costs 24-rand-1-cent and Bitcoin trades at 63-thousand-134-dollars-92-cents. Gold sells at two-thousand-153-dollars-86-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 86-dollars-80-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….