Business

5 important things happening in South Africa today

Staff Writer

 ·29 Oct 2018

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

• Stats SA will publish third quarter jobs data this week, with analysts anticipating the levels of unemployment remaining high. South Africa’s unemployment levels are at decades-highs, and with the country in recession and the populace getting poorer in real terms, no improvement is expected. [IOL]

• Public enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan says that efforts to stop corruption in government are being met with dangerous resistance. He said that government is addressing the mismanagement of SOEs, but was also facing pushback from certain sectors, which he did not name. [Reuters]

• Cosatu is planning action against e-tolls, following National Treasury’s stated support for the tolling scheme which, by all measures, has failed. The union federation is planning a ‘stayaway’ on Friday in protest of the system. [Times Live]

• South African and European law firms are circling Steinhoff on behalf of companies who lost money in the accounting fraud scandal which wiped as much as R187 billion in value from the company. The firms are launching a class action against the group, seeking to recoup the money they lost. [ENCA]

• South Africa’s rand firmed on Friday against a softer dollar, as investor appetite for riskier assets was boosted after the market digested news of the bleak medium-term budget. On Monday the rand was at R14.59 to the dollar, R18.73 to the pound and R16.63 to the euro.