Joburg mall robbed, and government workers demanding double-digit pay hike

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

• Bryanston mall heist: A gang of armed men stole an undisclosed amount of jewellery during a heist at Winifred Mandela Precinct, formerly known as Nicolay Mall, in Bryanston on Monday afternoon. [EWN]

• Strikes loom: South Africa’s 1.3 million government workers demanding a 12% pay hike say they are preparing for lengthy negotiations starting today. This comes after the state, grappling with a R700 billion-plus public sector wage bill, recently offered unions a 3% raise. [BusinessDay]

• Joburg residents feel the pain: Several Johannesburg suburbs are without water due to emergency repairs. Johannesburg Water is implementing a 12-hour outage until 22h00 tonight. The water utility says the repair work is crucial to improve the system’s reliability. The repairs come amid fears that Day Zero is looming in Gauteng. [eNCA]

• Steenhuisen calls for Brink’s reinstatement: The DA promised to exhaust all avenues in their efforts to reinstate the ousted mayor of Tshwane, Cilliers Brink. [News24]

• Markets: The South African rand weakened on Monday, pausing after two weeks of gains spurred by improved investor sentiment toward the currency. On Tuesday (1 October), the rand was trading at R17.27 to the dollar, R23.10 to the pound, and R19.24 to the euro. Oil is trading at $71.79 a barrel. [Reuters]