5 important things happening in South Africa today
·19 Jan 2018
Here’s what is happening in and affecting South Africa today:
- President Jacob Zuma has launched a fight back against a court ruling saying that he is too compromised to appoint the head of the National Prosecuting Authority. In papers filed on Thursday, Zuma said he was the only president of the country, and it was his constitutional power to appoint the national director of public prosecutions.
- Embattled retail group Steinhoff has been given a brief reprieve after it secured backing from lenders to prop up its finances and operations in Europe over the short term. The group received a first instalment of 60 million euros out of 200 million, which will be used to meet business critical payments.
- Eskom’s disgraced CFO Anoj Singh was responsible for reportedly signing a ‘secret’ deal which would force the cash-strapped power utility to pay R400 million to an ‘obscure offshore entity’ which assisted in raising loans in China. Eskom’s legal division suspects it could be a kickback.
- Residents in the City of Cape Town have successfully managed to shift the city council’s plans to implement a ‘drought levy’, which would force residents to pay extra monthly fee to help curb the ongoing water crisis. The plan is expected to be officially scrapped on Friday, though punitive charges may be formally introduced along with level 6B restrictions.
- South Africa’s rand scaled a two and a half year high against a broadly fragile dollar on Thursday, climbing more than 1% after the central bank held interest rates steady and the new head of the ruling ANC ramped up his tough talk on graft. On Friday the rand was at R12.11 to the dollar, R16.85 to the pound and R14.85 to the euro.
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