Business

5 important things happening in South Africa today

Staff Writer

 ·19 Jun 2018

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

• Wage negotiations between striking workings and Eskom are set to continue on Tuesday, with the power utility making it clear that it was willing to improve on its original 0% wage increase offer. “Our shareholder, which is government, has said ‘do something to improve the situation and improve the offer’. Clearly, it means there’s willingness on the part of government to assist us where possible,” said Eskom spokesperson, Khulu Phasiwe. [eNCA]

• South Africa’s new Information Regulator wants answers from Liberty about how its data breach occurred, and has also asked for information on the extent of the breach. The company announced at the weekend that hackers stole emails and related attachments. It’s understood hackers have asked for money to prevent the data being made public. [EWN]

• The High Court dismissed MTN’s bid to have Transnet’s R325 million deal with Vodacom set aside on Monday. MTN said in its court papers that it wanted Transnet’s contract with Vodacom, which was signed in February and involves the provision of mobile voice and data services, to be set aside as the tender process had been “marred with irregularities”. [BusinessDay]

• Former Intelligence minister Ronnie Kasrils has warned that South Africa’s intelligence agencies degenerated into “an absolute mess” under the Jacob Zuma administration, and have themselves become a threat to the country’s security. He added that the weakening of the state and security in the country meant that questions of espionage threats had begun to intensify. [TimesLive]

• South Africa’s rand tumbled to a new six-month low on Monday as concerns over the economy following weekend power outages worsened the effects of a global selloff of emerging market currencies. On Tuesday, the rand was trading at R13.84 to the dollar, R18.36 to the pound and R16.10 to the euro.