Business

5 important things happening in South Africa today

Staff Writer

 ·29 Aug 2018

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

• Government has withdrawn a land expropriation bill that passed in 2016, which allowed the state to expropriate land in the public interest, at a price set by an adjudicator. The bill was never signed into law. The withdrawal makes way for government’s new plans to expropriate land without any compensation at all. [Reuters]

• Medical schemes could face higher prices if the Department of Health allows pharmaceutical companies to hike prices. Schemes say they have already absorbed the costs of the VAT hike (R875 million), but price hikes would add another R260 million to that, which may have to be passed on to consumers. [Business Day]

• Ex-CEO fo Steinhoff, Markus Jooste, has agreed to appear under oath before parliament – but with conditions. The executive, who oversaw Steinhoff’s massive “accounting scandal” has a week to prepare, and will face “limited” questions by the committee. Former Steinhoff CFO Ben La Grange will be at parliament today. [IOL]

• The EFF is taking issue with Multichoice’s new black-owned news channel, accusing the media group of not selecting the best bid to fill the space left by ANN7. The party said it is considering making Multichoice appear before parliament to answer how it reached its conclusion. [EWN]

• South Africa’s rand held steady against a weaker dollar on Tuesday as investor optimism that a US-Mexico deal will help avert a global trade war boosted appetite for riskier assets. On Wednesday, the rand is trading at R14.23 to the dollar, R18.29 to the pound and R16.62 to the euro.