5 important things happening in South Africa today
·28 Jul 2017
Here’s what is happening in and affecting South Africa today:
- Controversial Eskom chief financial officer Anoj Singh has been suspended following allegations that he was involved in irregularly awarding contracts to Gupta-linked businesses, while also receiving gifts from the controversial family. It’s reported that the decision to suspend Singh was made after Eskom was threatened by the Development Bank of SA (DBSA) that it would retract its R15 billion loan if no action is taken against Singh. This could have caused a chain reaction as other lenders called in over R300 billion from the company, noted the report.
- President Jacob Zuma’s top bodyguard and head of the presidential protection service (PPS) unit received a significant cash payment from a supplier of blue lights to the unit to purchase a house in an upmarket golf estate. According to a new report by News24 and Scorpio, Phineas Manthata, owner of the company Instrumentation for Traffic Law Enforcement (ITLE), in 2012 contributed R700,000 towards the purchase by Major-General Muzingaye Mxolisi Dladla and his then partner of a house in the Blue Valley golf estate in Midrand.
- Police will begin stepping up metred-taxi inspections following continued violent clashes with Uber drivers. Speaking at an outcome meeting on Thursday, Transport minister Joe Maswanganyi said that anyone who operates without a valid permit will face the full might of the law.
- The Western Cape’s provincial education department has subsidised 101 independent schools to the tune of R101 million during the 2016/17 financial year. Teacher unions have slammed the funding, saying money should be made available to improve infrastructure and upskill staff at public schools who cater to the most disadvantaged pupils. National Professional Teachers’ Organisation of South Africa (Naptosa) executive director Basil Manuel said while independent schools have always been entitled to subsidies, there was no need to have start-up independent schools if proper funding was provided to improve state schools.
- South Africa’s main stock indices came within sight of record highs on Thursday only to be repelled by technical factors, with data showing the market had moved into overbought territory. On Friday the rand was trading at R13.00 to the dollar, R17.00 to the pound and R15.20 to the euro.
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