Business

5 important things happening in South Africa today

Staff Writer

 ·13 Dec 2017

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

• ANC chief whip Jackson Mthembu has alleged that Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma supporters are making a desperate attempt to rig the party’s coming elective conference, through vote buying. He said that ‘some people’ in the party are trying to allocate delegates to branches that failed to hold branch general meetings.

• When taking into account all of the companies that were exposed to Steinhoff’s blunder, the total damage done amounts to over R300 billion. Calculations by Moneyweb show that aside from Steinhoff (and Star) itself, Brait and Stellar Capital were hardest hit, losing over 15% of market value after the fall.

• The IDC is suing Gupta-owned companies in an attempt to recover over R287.5 million which it says is owed to it. The amount includes loans and interest owed to the group by the Guptas, as well as the legal fees it says that family is responsible for. The IDC says it was persuaded to buy into the Guptas’ Oakbay on what might be falsified financial statements.

• More details of the Post Office / Sassa social grants deal have emerged via the Mail & Guardian, showing that the partnership will move forward at a cost of R2.25 billion – this equates to R6.71 er Sassa/Sapo card holder and bank beneficiaries, R12.41 per Sapo branch services user, and R55.60 per Cash PayPoint user.

• South Africa’s rand weakened on Tuesday as an upcoming conference of the ruling ANC party to pick a new leader and bets of higher interest rates in the United States kept investors cautious. On Wednesday the rand was trading at R13.64 to the dollar, R18.19 to the pound and R16.04 to the euro.