5 important things happening in South Africa today
·10 Aug 2018
Here’s what is happening in and affecting South Africa today:
- As part of government’s plan to cut costs, it will reportedly be cutting as many as 30,000 jobs in the public service. This is according to insiders who attended a Cabinet lekgotla, adding that R4 billion has been set aside to initiate severance package plans. [Mail & Guardian]
- Unions are looking for a free pass from Eskom, threatening to pull out of wage talks if the power utility continues to chase disciplinary action against workers that sabotaged the nation’s power supply and embarked on illegal strikes. [eNCA]
- A class action lawsuit has been laid against Steinhoff and several other groups, including SA banks, seeking R185 billion in damages. This is how much investors believe was wiped from their portfolios due to Steinhoff’s very public meltdown following an accounting scandal. [CNBC]
- Former executives at the University of Johannesburg, Roy Marcus and Jaco van Schoor, have been ordered to pay back R20 million they stole from the university. The duo used fraudulent invoices to channel money intended for UJ’s projects to companies linked to them. [702]
- South Africa’s rand retreated on Wednesday ahead of a bank holiday on Thursday, with investors booking profits from the previous session’s rally and closing positions as the dollar bounced back on the latest US and China trade war twist. On Friday the rand was at R13.71 to the dollar, R17.59 to the pound and R15.79 to the euro.