Business

5 important things happening in South Africa today

Staff Writer

 ·31 Jul 2019

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

• Eskom is facing a death spiral, say exiting CEO, Phakamani Hadebe, who stressed that the only way to escape it is to change the group’s outdated business model. Customers are going off grid and finding alternatives because of high tariffs and unreliable service – this in turn forces Eskom to push prices even higher to make up the shortfall. Eskom this week reported a R20.7 billion loss for the year. [Reuters]

• A report by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) found that Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane was flagged by HSBC Bank in an internal investigation for allegedly receiving $5,000 from the Gupta family in 2014. The investigation was part of an internal process to identify any Gupta-linked companies around the world. Mkhwebane denied any knowledge of a payment, or the HSBC investigation, calling the report malicious. [OCCRP]

• Old Mutual will appeal the High Court ruling ordering it to reinstate former CEO Peter Moyo. The group fired Moyo in June over an alleged conflict of interest related to his other business interests. However, the decision was challenged in court, and his firing was found to be unlawful. Old Mutual argues that there has been a complete breakdown in trust between the two parties, and the ruling puts the company’s share price at risk. [702]

• The future of e-tolling in Gauteng is again up in the air after the ANC’s national executive committee throws its support behind ‘user pays’ for infrastructure projects. While the user pays principle is not exclusive to e-tolling, the system does epitomise it, and is being pushed by e-tolling supporters as the only way to pay for Gauteng’s roads and the debt the project has amassed over the years. [BusinessLive]

• South Africa’s rand steadied on Tuesday as traders, eschewing big transactions despite poor unemployment figures and another loss from power utility Eskom, stayed on the sidelines ahead of a US monetary policy announcement. On Wednesday the rand was at R14.19 to the dollar, R17.25 to the pound and R15.83 to the euro.