For Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Halima Frost.

Making headlines: Interest rate hiked by 50 basis points; KZN Premier exploring legal options against school nutrition programme company; And, Tanzania High Commissioner on Magudumana unlawful arrest claim

 

Interest rate hiked by 50 basis points

The South African Reserve Bank's monetary policy committee hiked interest rates by 50 basis points to 8.25%. This is in line with what many economists and the market expected.

The earlier consensus expectation was for 25 basis points, but the rand's crash to a record low in the wake of US allegations that Russia received arms in South Africa has raised inflation risks. A weaker rand will fuel inflation.

The members of monetary policy committee all voted unanimously in favour of the hike. 

The central bank has now hiked rates by 475 basis points of tightening since November 2021.

On a new home loan of R2-million at the prime rate, the latest increase hikes the monthly instalment by around R690. Since November 2021, monthly payments on a R2-million home loan are almost R6 200 more expensive due to a raft of rate hikes.

South Africa's annual inflation rate reached an 11-month low in April, cooling to 6.80% from 7.10% in March, it was announced on Tuesday. Inflation slowed by more than economists expected.

 

 

KZN Premier exploring legal options against school nutrition programme company

KwaZulu-Natal Premier Nomusa Dube-Ncube is seeking legal opinion on the steps that should be taken against the company responsible for the non-delivery of food items to schools in the province as part of the National School Nutrition Programme.

When schools opened in April this year, for the second term, it was discovered that the service provider failed to honour the terms of the contract with the Department of Education.

This has since caused the non-delivery of food items to all schools on April 12, shortages of deliveries in recent weeks, the supply of non-compliant food items and long distances travelled by service providers to collection points.

It has also led to the Premier instituting a Ministerial Committee to deal with the challenges in the National School Nutrition Programme.

Dube-Ncube has led oversight visits to assess the implementation of the feeding programme in schools across all districts and has also expressed concerns about misleading reports regarding the non-delivery of food in some schools, where investigations have revealed that those schools had in fact received food deliveries.

 

And, Tanzania High Commissioner on Magudumana unlawful arrest claim

Amid allegations by Nandipha Magudumana that her arrest in Tanzania was unlawful, Tanzania High Commissioner to SA, retired major-general Gaudence Milanzi has maintained that further details around the contested incarceration will emerge in court. 

Milanzi added that a positive about the incident was that it again showed the collaboration between the two countries. 

He reiterated that the good thing is that Thabo Bester is here and relevant people can confirm how he was arrested.

His sentiments come after Magudumana approached the high court in Bloemfontein, alleging that she was forcefully abducted and blindfolded during her arrest in Tanzania before being taken to the airport.

She is seeking to have her arrest and detention declared wrongful and unlawful. 

The court is expected to hear the matter on Friday. 

Magudumana was arrested in April in Tanzania with Bester, a convicted rapist and murderer who escaped prison. She has been in custody since. 

 

 

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today

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