5 important things happening in South Africa today
·15 Sep 2017
Here’s what is happening in and affecting South Africa today:
- Absa has joined the Reserve Bank in accusations that the Public Protector met with the state spy agency to discuss and question the independence of the central bank before issuing her findings on the CIEX report. In court papers, Absa says protector Mkhwebane met with the SSA not once, but twice. She recommended a case of apartheid looting against Absa be reopened.
- President Jacob Zuma’s legal team made a startling concession in his court case to get 783 charges of corruption dropped – they admitted that the decision by the NPA to drop the charges was irrational. While seen as a victory by his opponents, many analysts suspect that the beleaguered president may still have tricks up his sleeve.
- Data released by Stats SA shows that South Africa’s current account deficit has widened to 2.4% of GDP (from 2% last quarter), representing a R110.5 billion gap. While economists expected the data to reflect a narrowing of the deficit, they noted that in the big picture, things were far better than they were 18 months ago.
- Eskom has once again delayed the process of signing on independent power producers, after Nersa investigations into the power utility’s failure to approve new contracts was postponed by two weeks, after Eskom cited “communication challenges” for the delay. It has been almost a year since IPPs complained about Eskom’s refusal to approve the programme.
- The rand eased on Thursday to three-week lows after data showed the current account deficit widened in the second quarter, while mining shares weighed on the bourse. On Friday the rand was trading at R13.12 to the dollar, R17.60 to the pound and R15.63 to the euro.
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