5 important things happening in South Africa today
·9 May 2017
Here’s what is happening in and affecting South Africa today:
- Deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa says that money is diving the ANC, and it will end up being the party’s downfall unless members choose their next leaders wisely. He warned that opposition parties smell blood, and that the ANC needs to correct itself or it will lose to them in 2019. Ramaphosa has been campaigning unofficially, positioning himself as the opposite of president Jacob Zuma.
- Half of the public works department officials who were implicated in the Nkandla scandal and are facing disciplinary action, have been rewarded with performance bonuses over the past 5 years. The bonuses range between R11,000 and R60,000. Despite the pending action against them, because they haven’t been suspended, they qualify for bonuses, the department said.
- EFF leader Julius Malema has denied reports that he is conspiring to topple the Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwean government. Zim state media this weekend alleged that Saviour Kasukuwere, the Zanu-PF political commissar, was plotting to stage a coup with Malema. The EFF said that the accusations were laughable.
- A new ATM card fraud scam has hit Cape Town, called a ‘pop-up’ scam. Tourists and unsuspecting citizens are targetted: while walking in the streets, they are stopped and told there is filming going on, and they need a permit to pass by. They are informed that a permit can be retrieved from an ATM – the cards are then swapped out. R20,000 to R30,000 is often stolen this way.
- South Africa’s rand weakened on Monday, giving back some of Friday’s strong gains as investors favoured developed market currencies after the French election result calmed fears the country would follow Britain out of the European Union. On Tuesday, the rand was trading at R13.66 to the dollar, R17.68 to the pound and R14.92 to the euro.
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