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As expected, the Reserve Bank's monetary policy committee (MPC) has hiked the repo rate by another 25 basis points to 4.25%. This brings the prime rate to 7.75%.

Three members of the committee voted for the increase, while two wanted a 50 basis point hike.

On a new home loan of R2-million at the prime rate, the monthly payment will increase by around R300 following the rate hike.

After the prime rate went from 10% in 2019 to 7% last year, the bank started to hike rates again in November last year, followed by another 25 basis point increase in January.

The MPC is moving to hike rates in an effort to subdue inflation, which has been heating up in recent months.

February's consumer inflation reaching 5.7% - close to the upper limit of the Reserve Bank's target range of 3% to 6%.

This is largely due to skyrocketing oil prices, which resulted in petrol and diesel prices rising by more than a third over the past year.

The petrol price is currently on track for a hike of around R1.85 to R1.93 a litre in the first week of April, while diesel prices could see an increase of almost R3 a litre.

In addition, the invasion of Ukraine has triggered large increases in commodity prices, including wheat and cooking oil. This will add to inflationary pressure in South Africa in coming months.

The Reserve Bank now expects headline inflation for this year of 5.8%, much higher than the 4.9% it expected previously. This hike is primarily due to higher food and fuel prices.

But the bank has also hiked its expectation for South African economy growth - which is now expected to be 2.0% in 2022, revised up from 1.7% at the time of the MPC's January meeting.

"This is due to a combination of factors, including stronger growth in 2021 and higher commodity export prices. Growth in output in the first quarter of this year is likely to be significantly stronger than expected at the time of the January meeting," Reserve Bank Governor Lesetja Kganyago said.

Most economists expect another 125 basis point hikes by the end of 2023.

Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Naledi Pandor, and her department are preparing to "return to court" after the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria interdicted government's planned R50-million donation to Cuba.

On Tuesday, Judge Brenda Neukircher granted the urgent interdict, pending the final outcome of an application to be instituted by AfriForum to review and set aside the decision to donate an amount of R50-million to the Cuban government, or the final outcome of proceedings to declare that the donation is unlawful and/or unconstitutional, News24 reported.

"The ministry, as well as the Department of International Relations and Cooperation, have noted the interim order granted in the Pretoria High Court, pausing implementation of the humanitarian aid that South Africa had agreed it would provide to the Republic of Cuba," Pandor said in a statement issued on Wednesday.

"We are studying the judgment. It is an interim order. There will be a return to court in 20 days' time. We are consulting our legal representatives and preparing our heads of arguments.

"And we want to make it clear that the African Renaissance fund does not provide money to any beneficiary. We provide humanitarian aid; be it food, medical supplies, or other forms of support. No money is provided and the funds lie within the budget of the Department of International Relations and Cooperation and no other department. Nevertheless, we are preparing to return to court," she said.

Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on International Relations and Cooperation, Supra Mahumapelo, had also noted Neukircher's ruling.

The committee said it would study the judgment and respond at an appropriate time.

"Of course we are not happy, as this outcome will likely have major implications on other progressive international solidarity work that South Africa still has to do with countries like Cuba," Mahumapelo said, according to a statement.

The committee's responsibility would be to look at how the department would respond, particularly as it related to the Constitution and AfriForum's views on solidarity work and the relationship between the arms of state.

The committee will meet with Pandor on Friday as part of its oversight programme over the department.

Democratic Alliance Shadow Minister of Health and party spokesperson Siviwe Gwarube said on Wednesday that the changes to the State of Disaster regulations announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa continue to hold the country back from a full recovery.

On Tuesday evening Ramaphosa announced the relaxation of lockdown regulations, following a meeting with premiers and mayors from all provinces.

The Covid-19 requirement of wearing face masks outdoors has been lifted, however, they must still be worn in indoor spaces.

Indoor and outdoor venues can take up to 50% of their capacity and proof of vaccination must be enforced or else only 1 000 people and 2 000 people will be allowed indoors and outdoors respectively.

Sport gatherings, conferences and music performances will be allowed and the number of people allowed at a funeral will increase to 200, however, funerals are limited to two hours.

Aside from schools, a one-meter gap must still be maintained between people.

Travellers entering the country must show proof of vaccination or a PCR test and those entering and who want a vaccination, can get one from Wednesday.

Gwarube said this would help the tourism industry and other cross-border businesses recover.

However, she stated that the limits of 1 000 and 2 000 people at indoor and outdoor events would continue to strangle industries.

She argued that the number limits were completely arbitrary and were probably exceeded daily at many malls or markets.

The party is not satisfied with the concession that venues can host vaccinated or PCR negative people to half capacity.

Addressing the issue of mask-wearing at schools, Gwarube said it was an impediment to language and emotional development.

She said social distancing and other workplace rules would continue to harm the productivity of government and other services.

The DA still views the limitation of family visits to prisons to two non-contact visits a month as an ongoing cruelty.

Gwarube stated that the only measure the DA would support is the continuation of the Social Relief of Distress Grant.

Gwarube said the changes announced by the President did not go far enough.

“Despite some welcome changes, the persisting rules will harm jobs and increase poverty while providing no benefit at all,” she said.

The DA warned that it would take necessary action to ensure that every last restriction of the State of Disaster was overturned and that it would fight any attempt to make these permanent through regulations in the National Health Act or elsewhere.

South Africans should expect the fifth wave of Covid-19 infections towards the end of April or early May. This is according to Dr Ridhwaan Suliman, the senior researcher at CSIR who was speaking at the SA Healthcare Industry Summit on Wednesday.

Suliman and the CSIR join a growing number of institutions predicting that the fifth wave will arrive sooner rather than later.

Earlier this month, Fin24 reported that Absa said it expected the fifth wave to strike as soon as April. The banking group had increased Covid-19 provisions for its insurance business by a further R330-million, though it said death claims in the fourth wave were much lower than expected.

The bank used R701-million to cover claims in the third and fourth waves. But it was optimistic that the fifth wave might - like the fourth wave - also see a decrease in the proportion of severe cases, with a potentially less severe impact on insurers.

Two years after the pandemic entered SA shores, President Cyril Ramaphosa on Tuesday announced further easing of Covid-19 regulations, confirming that the state of disaster would be lifted soon. A new code on managing Covid-19 in the workplace is also in the pipeline. But Suliman believes South Africa is not yet out of the woods.

He said based on CSIR's estimates, some 12-million people are susceptible to further infection because they don't have prior immunity. These people are still "immunologically naïve", said Suliman.

So, while the world is starting to talk about the pandemic becoming more stable, like a common cold, the immunologically naïve population means South Africa isn't approaching the endemic phase yet.

"Those 12-million on their own could still create an epidemic," said Suliman.

As the pandemic stays with us for a little longer, Suliman and other speakers in the Summit foresee a fifth and sixth wave. Some say there may be even more waves of infection past the sixth one.

And the longer the virus stays with us, the more it will mutate. And the fifth wave will likely be driven by a new variant that will outcompete Omicron as the dominant cause of infections in SA.

"But while there may likely be higher levels of infection, there are higher levels of immunity in the country. So, we hope to see less severe outcomes of hospitalisations and deaths going forward," said Suliman.

He said that while it was possible for the next variant to be more severe and more transmissible, it was unlikely.

Regarding the fifth wave, Suliman said the trends in South Africa over the past two years have been fairly predictable. Each of the four waves have been separated by about three months between them.

"So, based on that data and trends, we can expect three months after the end of Omicron, a surge or resurgence of a fifth wave. So, that puts us towards the end of April or the beginning of May, where we may likely see higher infection rates or resurgence of the fifth wave," he said.

Dr Fareed Abdullah, the director of the Office of AIDS and TB Research at the South African Medical Research Council, said underlying T cell immunity has been consistent across all the variants.

T cells are a group of immune cells that can target and destroy virus-infected cells. So, the higher immunity levels in SA, through prior infections and vaccinations, bode well for less severe future waves.

"It would have to be a very, very unusual virus to end up with a scenario where the virus evades T cell immunity, and we haven't seen that yet," he said.

Abdullah added continuing to vaccinate the part of the population that has not taken the jabs was crucial because in countries with low immunity rates, like in Hong Kong, even Omicron proved to be a deadly wave.

Abdullah said in Steve Biko Academic Hospital, where he works, Covid-19 patients currently under ventilation are only those who have not vaccinated.

Had SA achieved at least an 80% vaccination coverage rate by the time the fourth wave hit, Covid-19 deaths would have been a fraction of what the government r...

President Cyril Ramaphosa and the country's nine premiers and the mayors of major cities are deciding on the nation's next move in the fight against Covid-19.

The President's Coordinating Council meeting on Tuesday takes place against the backdrop of the decision to extend the National State of Disaster to 15 April.

The National State of Disaster was first declared nearly 24 months ago, at the end of March 2020.

While the National State of Disaster was initially set to lapse on 15 June 2020, legislation provided that it could be extended by Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma by notice in the Government Gazette for one month at a time.

Despite calls from scientists, experts and opposition politicians, the extension was approved.

On Monday, South Africa recorded 566 new Covid-19 infections. Four new deaths have been recorded, bringing the confirmed death toll to 99 890.

According to the National Institute for Communicable Diseases, the 566 new cases represent a 3.9% positivity rate.

So far, more than 33-million vaccine doses have been administered.

Western Cape Premier Alan Winde said he would use the meeting to lobby Ramaphosa to end the National State of Disaster immediately.

"South Africans, especially those who are unemployed, should not have to wait until 15 April (and likely longer) because the national government has simply not done their job in time, despite having months to prepare. It is concerning to me that despite public utterances that the priority of the national government is to create jobs, its actions seem to show otherwise. It's time to bridge this gap and show the courage needed to get our economy growing again," Winde said.

Winde said the Western Cape Department of Economic Development and Tourism conducted a poll among businesses about the impact of lockdown.

"81% of respondents cited major disruption to their businesses over the last 18 months, 12% of respondents indicated moderate disruption. Eighty-five percent of respondents indicated that their revenue was impacted upon by Covid-19 in the last 18 months," Winde added.

Winde said businesses and households had been hit hard.

"The president is also wrong if he thinks that the status quo is not hurting the economy, and these are merely health regulations. The events industry, in particular, continues to be impacted by a non-sensical restriction on the size of gatherings. Many countries lifted these restrictions some time ago," he said.

Winde also said amid load-shedding and the global impact of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, ending these regulations will send the right message to the economy.

"It is now time to walk the talk without any further delays. It is time to lift the National State of Disaster immediately," he said.

The DA has also approached the court to force government to end the National State of Disaster.

ActionSA’s Senate has terminated Dr Makhosi Khoza's membership, with immediate effect, for bringing the party into disrepute.

In a statement on Tuesday, the party said Khoza deliberately acted in a way that negatively impacted the party and it accused her of causing disunity in the party.

Khoza’s fate was decided on Monday after ActionSA’s Senate resolved to terminate her membership on the recommendations of its Ethics and Disciplinary Committee, following a series of public outbursts in January.

A disciplinary panel was convened, chaired by former Acting Judge in the High Court Advocate Gill Benson and prosecuted by ActionSA’s Western Cape provincial chairperson Vytjie Mentor.

“There is no reasonable explanation for her continued abuse of the party, which she purports to promote. As a high-standing member of the party, she disregards the reputational damage to the party, for apparent publicity and self-gain. Her loyalties do not lie with ActionSA and instead, lie with aspiring to grow her own political aspirations, at the great cost of her constituency and ActionSA,” the Disciplinary Report read.

The panel said it also saw evidence that demonstrated communication with ringleaders of a group of dismissed members from Soweto who had previously been found to have acted to deliberately destabilise the party.

Khoza and the Soweto group were found to be “plotting to deal with” ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba.

It remains to be seen if Khoza will challenge the 24-page report compiled by the party’s disciplinary panel.

ActionSA said it holds no ill-will towards Khoza.

“While her actions may not have been excusable, Dr Khoza remains an individual who has played an important role in South African politics. We wish Dr Khoza well in her future endeavours outside of ActionSA,” the party concluded.

Lobby group AfriForum has successfully interdicted the government's planned R50-million donation to Cuba.

In a written judgment to the affected parties, Judge Brenda Neukircher, of the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria, granted the urgent interdict, pending the final outcome of an application to be instituted by AfriForum to review and set aside the decision to donate an amount of R50-million to the Government of Cuba, or the final outcome of proceedings to declare that the donation is unlawful and/or unconstitutional.

Neukircher said: "None of the respondents could claim that they would suffer any harm were the R50-million donation to be put on hold whilst the matter was adjudicated on its complete merits." Neukircher also ordered the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (Dirco) and National Treasury to pay the costs of the urgent application.

She said the matter represented the broader interests of the public, and there was no reason for the lobby group to be out of pocket. After the judgment, Reiner Duvenage, the campaign officer for strategy and content at AfriForum, said: "We are pleased that we have managed to stop this unlawful and shameful donation in its tracks. We are now optimistic that our review application will succeed in making a final end to the matter.

AfriForum pledges to continue its fight against outrageous and wasteful expenditure, which is squandering taxpayers' money.

"The judgment was somewhat unexpected as Neukircher last week warned that AfriForum's application may have been premature and premised on shaky legal arguments.

"During the presentation of arguments, Neukircher warned AfriForum's legal representative, Johan Hamman, that the applicants were misreading communication provided by Dirco and National Treasury.

As such, she said, AfriForum was premising its legal bid on a shaky foundation.

Neukircher corrected Hamman, who kept alluding to the letter from the aforementioned departments as meaning that the donation had been concluded.

"It's the decision to donate, not the donation. It [the letter from Dirco and National Treasury] does not say the donation has been done. It says we [the two departments] have decided to donate, and the decision to donate was concluded in line with the prescribed regulations.

"That is the problem here; this is where the respondent is saying AfriForum is missing the point. There hasn't been a completion of the steps by which the actual money will be transferred.

"We [the two departments] are still right at the beginning, that is what they are saying, that we have made the decision, we have got the funds because the funds have been approved and the request to make the donation has been approved.

But we haven't finished the rest. We are not there yet," said the judge. The successful interdict represented the first part of AfriForum's legal action against the donation.

The second part will involve submitting a review application at a later date to overturn the government's decision to donate the funds to Cuba.

Former Ukhozi FM radio personality Ngizwe Mchunu, who has been charged with inciting violence during the unrest in July 2021, appeared in the Randburg Magistrate's Court in Johannesburg on Friday.

Mchunu arrived at court dressed in traditional attire and supported by armed men in black who stood guard outside the court with rifles and handguns.

During Mchunu's court appearance, prosecutor Yusuf Baba said the State needed more time to verify a document given to them by the defence.

Baba said the investigating officer in the matter needed to go to KwaZulu-Natal to verify the information, adding that it was not "something that can be investigated locally".

The matter was then postponed to 17 June 2022.

Mchunu handed himself over to Durban police on 19 July 2021 after allegedly inciting public violence during a media briefing he held at a Bryanston hotel on 11 July in support of the release of former president Jacob Zuma.

Advocates for Transformation (AFT) has informed its members that Kameshni Pillay SC and Siphokazi Poswa-Lerotholi SC will alternatively represent it at the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) after advocate Dali Mpofu's term ended.

This means that Mpofu's representation of AFT at the controversial Chief Justice interviews was the last time he represented it at the JSC. During the interviews, Mpofu had controversially asked Gauteng Judge President Dunstan Mlambo about unsubstantiated sexual harassment rumours and told the JSC that he and Appeal Court President Judge Mandisa Maya had "spent the night together".

An AFT sub-committee – comprised of advocates Tembeka Ngcukaitobi SC, Joe Nxusani SC, Phumlani Ngobese SC, Kgomotso Nhlapo-Merabe, Dustin Thompson, and Siphokazi Cubungu – has unanimously endorsed the candidature of both Pillay and Poswa-Lerotholi.

"We recommend that the CVs of Pillay SC and Poswa-Lerotholi SC should be obtained and urgently sent to the minister of justice with a request to process their appointment timeously for the April 2022 interviews," it stated in a report sent to its membership on Thursday night.

The sub-committee also examined AFT's role at the JSC and, among other things, what had occurred at the Chief Justice interviews, which have been widely lambasted.

"There are concerns about the interview techniques and the impact this has had on the process. There are criticisms that there is a discreet political motive, that there has been overreach and that judicial nominees have been subjected to an unconstitutional process," the AFT sub-committee report read.

Some woman members of AFT have pointed out that there was a sexist flavour to the interview of Judge President Maya. Others have contended that the interviews portrayed four excellent black judges in a poor light and retarded the process of transformation.

While noting that AFT had defended Mpofu against the "sustained and ad hominem attack" he faced from "outside quarters", the sub-committee also stated that "AFT has not defended Mpofu SC in his role as a member of AFT and its representative at the JSC".

"AFT has also not sought to clarify where it differs with him, if at all. In this regard, AFT has failed to provide sorely needed leadership to its members and the profession generally," the report read.

The sub-committee report stressed that AFT should have engaged with Mpofu after the JSC's interviews with potential Constitutional Court justice nominees in April last year, which were successfully challenged in court because of the apparent "sham" process that preceded the vote on candidates.

"This does not appear to have happened. AFT National acted in an unprincipled manner. It did not confront the issue head-on. This caused considerable reputational damage to AFT, coming as it did on the rancid underperformance of AFT in the GCB (General Council of the Bar)," the sub-committee report stated.

"AFT knew that the interviews for the position of Chief Justice were imminent, but the NEC (national executive committee) took no steps at all to engage with Mpofu SC to align his position with his views in advance."

The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) believes President Cyril Ramaphosa's move to possibly suspend Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane is dictatorial and fear driven.

The party has been steadfast advocates for Mkhwebane in the past, and it held no punches in speaking against any move to suspend her.

The EFF labelled the possible suspension as another attempt to destroy an African woman.

"The letter demanding that Mkhwebane pleads her case to not be suspended is a veiled threat, and an effective removal of the Public Protector before a democratic institution can appraise itself on her performance, and whether she is capable of occupying that office.

"It is an implementation of the factional and undemocratic step-aside policy of his (Ramaphosa's) ruling party at the level of the state, which finds people guilty until proven innocent."

Ramaphosa wrote to Mkhwebane asking her to give reasons why he should not suspend her pending the finalisation of the parliamentary impeachment proceedings investigating her fitness to hold office.

The president gave her 10 days to respond.

Ramaphosa has moved swiftly on the legislative prerogative, which allows him to suspend Mkhwebane while she faces an inquiry led by Parliament.

Earlier, News24 reported that National Assembly Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula had written to Ramaphosa, informing him that the impeachment process against Mkhwebane would continue.

The EFF said Parliament's Section 194 Committee, which is dealing with the impeachment process, should be allowed time to do its work.

The party said Ramaphosa was conflicted in matters related to Mkhwebane, adding that her suspension was aimed at stripping her office of its powers.

"Busisiwe Mkhwebane has been unwavering in her mandate to hold those in power accountable, and she has done so indiscriminately, implicating Ramaphosa and his allies. To suspend her is, therefore, a measure to strip the Office of the Public Protector of its teeth. It is premature, rushed and leads us to conclude that it is a decision taken out of fear, rather than being based on rationality," the EFF said.

"His desire for power makes him destructive. He is willing to destroy institutions, create vacancies and operate like a dictator, to ensure that anyone who dares to oppose him is removed," it continued.

Earlier, Mkhwebane said she was seeking legal advice on the president's notice to suspend her.

She previously indicated that she would fight efforts to place her on suspension while her impeachment proceedings continued.