Business

5 important things happening in South Africa today

Staff Writer

 ·5 Apr 2017

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

• The ANC has distanced itself from ‘leaked’ minutes of its  National Working Committee (NWC) meeting held last night, which show that everything seems to have gone in favour of president Jacob Zuma. The standout discussion points from the meeting were apparently that the ‘rebels’ in the top 6 (Ramaphosa, Mantashe and Mkhize) should apologise for not supporting Zuma’s cabinet reshuffle.

• New finance minister Malusi Gigaba officially has full control over National Treasury, following handover on Tuesday. The minister entered his new role with 28 new staffers, who served him when he was in the home affairs ministry. When former minister Pravin Gordhan took the job, he brought 9 people, and when Des “four day” van Rooyen was placed in Treasury he brought two – both of which were Gupta associates.

• Former DA chief whip and political veteran, Douglas Gibson says that Western Cape premier Helen Zille is ‘past her shelf life’, has overstayed her welcome, and should retire. Gibson said that DA leader Mmusi Maimane was right to push charges against Zille, and that the whole situation was irritating because Zille forced the DA to engage in a pointless debate while the country was facing a crisis that needed all of its attention.

• In true DA fashion, the party is heading to the South African courts to try and get president Zuma to undo his recent cabinet reshuffle. The party is seeking a High Court ruling that will set aside the removal of Pravin Gordhan and Mcebisi Jonas from the finance portfolio, on the grounds that Zuma’s decision was irrational, unlawful and unconstitutional.

• South Africa’s rand and government bonds recovered on Tuesday after a sharp sell-off following S&P Global Ratings’ decision to cut the country’s credit rating to sub-investment grade, while stocks rose led by bullion shares. On Wednesday, the rand was trading at R13.62 to the dollar, R16.95 to the pound and R14.53 to the euro.