Business

5 important things happening in South Africa today

Staff Writer

 ·25 Sep 2019

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

• Business Unity South Africa (Busa) will head to court today in a bid to halt the planned strike in the banking sector on Friday. As many as 50,000 banking sector workers in Cosatu-affiliated unions are expected to picket and protest against planned job losses in the sector. Busa is applying for an interdict on behalf of the major commercial banks, claiming proper processes were not followed. [702]

• Reinstated Old Mutual CEO Peter Moyo is going after the company’s directors in their personal capacities, in his latest fightback against being fired by the group. The exec wants to censure the 13-person board and have them charged, individually, with contempt of court. Moyo was fired, twice, by the Old Mutual board, but reinstated by the High Court. Despite this, the group has prevented him from returning to work. [Daily Maverick]

• The collapse of the world’s oldest and largest travel company Thomas Cook will have an impact on South Africa – leaving South African tourists stranded, and leading to around 150 job losses. The group was declared bankrupt on Monday, which resulted in airlines, hotels and other associated businesses cancelling all bookings made through the company. It had outsourced customer service operations to South Africa. [Cape Talk]

• Elements within the ANC tied to previous president Jacob Zuma, are reportedly challenging president Cyril Ramaphosa’s bid to clean up the National Prosecuting Authority. Ramaphosa is facing multiple court challenges to his changes at the NPA, which aims to reverse the rot that crept in and hampered the effectiveness and capacity of the authority during state capture under Zuma. [Business Day – Premium]

• The rand saw a relatively tight trading range on Tuesday, with the local unit once again touching the R14.94/$ mark overnight. Markets will be keeping an eye on new home sales from the US today, as well as the September 2019 Quarterly Bulletin from the SARB. On Wednesday the rand is trading at R14.87 to the dollar, R18.54 to the pound and R16.36 to the euro.