5 important things happening in South Africa today

Here’s what is happening in and affecting South Africa today:

• Sibanye workers stage sit-in: Workers at the Kroondal mine, which is operated by Sibanye-Stillwater and focuses on extracting platinum group metals, have begun an underground sit-in to express their dissatisfaction with the employee share option schemes offered by the company. The sit-in started on Monday morning. As of the evening of Tuesday, there were still 211 employees remaining underground. [News24]

• Public protector slams justice system’s GBV responsiveness: Public protector Adv Kholeka Gcaleka released a report in Cape Town on Tuesday on findings of an investigation into difficulties experienced by gender-based violence (GBV) victims when reporting such crimes across the country. Some of the pressing issues Gcaleka identified include police who are not sufficiently trained, courts that have poor infrastructure and insufficient shelters for abused women. [Times Live]

• Labour court finds Coca-Cola retrenchments justified: The labour appeal court upheld Coca-Cola Beverages Africa’s (CCBSA) job layoffs due to alleged fiscal losses from the sugar tax, despite union legal objections. The court heard that financial strain from the tax led CCBSA to pay R2.1 billion in taxes and offer R850 million in discounts, causing a 2% drop in sales volumes, which led to a restructuring of their operations. [Business Day]

• KZN and Eastern Cape expect the storm death toll to rise: The KwaZulu-Natal provincial government said they expect the death toll to rise following Monday’s devastating storms. At least 11 people have been confirmed to have been killed as storms which caused extreme weather events wreaked havoc, while the Eastern Cape has recorded at least 10 fatalities. [EWN]

• Markets: The rand fell on Tuesday as uncertainty around possible coalition partners persisted. On Wednesday (5 June), the rand was trading at R18.71 to the dollar, R23.87 to the pound, and R20.37 to the euro. Oil is trading at $77.49 a barrel. [Reuters]