Business

5 important things happening in South Africa today

Staff Writer

 ·29 May 2017

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

• President Jacob Zuma has survived the ANC NEC yet again, after a heated debated on his fitness to hold office. According to insider reports, a majority of the NEC came out in full support of the president, while Zuma himself was seething, and reportedly threatened his detractors to stop attacking him in the media, warning them not to push him too far. The ANC is expected to brief the media on the outcomes of the meeting later today.

• The Gupta family has outright dismissed a series of emails that have been published in leading South African newspapers as “fake news”, saying that they have done nothing wrong, and insisting that those making the allegations against them provide proof that the emails are real, and amount to criminal activity. The family said that the emails are part of a political plot against them.

• Public enterprises minister Lynne Brown has been ordered to sort out the Brian Molefe issue at Eskom before the matter heads to court, leaked information from the ANC NEC has revealed. According to sources, the ANC wants Molefe out of Eskom, but does not want to lose his ‘professional capacity’ afterward, as the party still ‘appreciates’ him.

• A Gupta bank in South Africa is off the table as far as the country’s regulator is concerned, following Vardospan – the Gupta-linked group seeking to acquire Habib Overseas Bank – failed to get clearance and the deal expired in March 2017. While the executives of Vardospan said they would relaunch a bid, the Reserve Bank said it has not been approached, and as far as it’s concerned, the matter is off the table.

• The rand has done a complete 180 on the gains made last week following speculation that president Jacob Zuma could face removal at the ANC NEC. Hopeful markets pulled the rand to as low as R12.66 to the dollar, but on Monday this swung in the opposite direction to R12.89 on reports that Zuma would stick until December 2017 at the very least. The rand was at R16.53 to the pound and R14.39 to the euro on Monday.