News 17:00

BULLETIN 25 February 5 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# Fuel levies and sin taxes will increase in line with inflation
# The DA welcomes the start of an oversight measure in the National Prosecuting Authority Amendment Act
# And tennis: Daniil Medvedev advocates for less tournaments offering ranking points to shorten the calendar

# Finance minister Enoch Godongwana has announced fuel levies and so-called sin taxes will increase in line with inflation. The general fuel levy will rise by nine-cents per litre for petrol and eight-cents for diesel. Excise duties on tobacco, alcoholic drinks, and electronic nicotine products will increase proportionally. Godongwana said in his budget speech the increases are necessary to maintain revenue and support public finances while limiting the impact on consumers:

More news from the budget speech is that social grants are set to increase, with the old age and disability grants rising by 80-rand to reach two-thousand-400 from April this year. The child support grant will increase by 20-rand to 580-rand, while the foster care grant will also see smaller increases. Minister of Finance Enoch Godongwana said the adjustments aim to help households cope with the rising cost of living and provide continued social protection:

# The DA has welcomed the start of section eight of the National Prosecuting Authority Amendment Act, which comes into effect next month. The new law allows a retired judge to investigate complaints against the NPA’s Investigating Directorate, strengthening oversight and accountability. The DA’s Glynnis Breytenbach believes the new oversight mechanism will improve the credibility of the NPA and strengthen efforts to fight crime:

# The United Nations Population Fund says the Southern African Development Community region continues to lead globally in HIV response, with sustained reductions in new infections and AIDS-related deaths. This is driven by a combination of prevention and treatment scale-up. The fund’s regional director for East and Southern Africa, Lydia Zigomo, says they are scaling interventions to minimise maternal deaths, gender-based violence and harmful practices.

# Tennis: Russia’s world number 11, Daniil Medvedev, asks for the men’s professional calendar to be streamlined so only Grand Slam and Masters One-thousand tournaments would offer ranking points. He says it would ease the pressure on top players if the smaller events didn’t offer ranking points, with them currently having to play 11 months of the year. Medvedev believes removing ranking points is the only way to shorten the tour, but concedes such reforms would be difficult to implement.

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 15-rand-85-cents and the euro at 18-rand-69-cents. One British pound costs 21-rand-44-cents and Bitcoin trades at 66-thousand-131-dollars. Gold sells at five-thousand-187-dollars-34-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 71-dollars-21-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….