Finance

5 important things happening in South Africa today

Staff Writer

 ·22 Mar 2017

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

• President Jacob Zuma has eased up on his stance on land redistribution in South Africa, changing from an explicitly pro-land redistribution without compensation position to a more measured one. Zuma told supporters that he is committed to addressing the hunger for land in South Africa, but it would be done through ‘practical and reasonable’ means.

• An analysis of the ANC’s policy documents has revealed a worrying point: the party appears to have dropped crime as a talking point in its policy discussions. While crime is mentioned, its almost exclusively about crimes against the state, with talk around conspiracies of international forces trying to destabilise local operations. Other focuses are on violent protests and citizens fighting the state – but no mention of crime.

• A spate of assaults and attacks on officials in the social development department, and robberies at the offices of the Chief Justice are being seen as intimidation and threats for people to keep their mouths shut. Social development director-general Zane Dangor – whose home was burgled this past week – said the message was clear: he must ‘shut up’ or else.

• A video of a man threatening to assault a mother at a Spur in the south of Johannesburg has gone viral and sparked outrage among social media users, civil groups and political parties. In the video, a man physically threatens to hit a woman, in front of her children, after the two got into a shouting match over their kids pushing each other around in the play room. The man has been banned from all Spurs, while the EFF are seeking his identity to press charges against him.

• South African markets were closed for the public holiday on Tuesday, but this week saw the rand’s rally continue, with the currency strengthening to its strongest levels in almost 20 months. On Wednesday, the rand softened slightly but stuck at its stronger levels, trading at R12.70 to the dollar, R15.84 to the pound and R13.71 to the euro.