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

Making headlines:

Ramaphosa has Covid with mild symptoms

Congo's Tshisekedi says Ugandan troops' presence will be temporary

Parliamentary Committee calls for government to facilitate local defence industry exports

President Cyril Ramaphosa has tested positive for Covid-19 and is receiving treatment for mild symptoms.

“The president, who is fully vaccinated, is in self-isolation in Cape Town and has delegated all responsibilities to Deputy President David Mabuza for the next week,” the Presidency said in a statement on Sunday.

Ramaphosa, 69, was vaccinated against coronavirus with the Johnson & Johnson shot in February.

The Democratic Republic of Congo's President Felix Tshisekedi said on Monday he would ensure that Ugandan troops' presence in Congo, where they are fighting an Islamist militant group alongside Congolese forces, was for a strictly limited period.

Uganda and the DRC launched a joint operation this month against the Allied Democratic Forces, an armed group allied with Islamic State, but have given few details about its scope or expected duration.

"I will ensure the presence of Ugandan troops on our soil is limited to the time strictly necessary for this operation," said Tshisekedi in a state of the union address.

South Africa’s Parliamentary Joint Standing Committee on Defence has affirmed that the government should give the country’s defence industry the support it needs to ensure its sustainability.

The committee did so in a statement released on Friday, in which it reported that it had received the ‘controlled item transfers’ reports, covering both defence imports and exports, for the second, third and fourth quarters of this year.

The committee noted that the impediments to exports that are creating a backlog of R3.5-billion in orders, especially from the Gulf region, is receiving the attention of senior government authorities.

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today

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