Business

5 important things happening in South Africa today

Staff Writer

 ·24 Oct 2019

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

• SARS has relaunched a unit focused on collecting taxes from big corporations in the country. The unit was previously shut down under the orders of former commissioner Tom Moyane, who has been accused of maladministration and destroying SARS’ capacity to collect revenue. The renewed unit will focus on all companies with over R1 billion in turnover, and wealthy individuals with total net assets over R75 million. [Fin24]

• The DA has been left leaderless after Mmusi Maimane resigned from the party’s top position, and Athol Trollip quit his position as chairman – and politics altogether. In normal circumstances, when a leader quits unexpectedly, the chairman takes over, but because both quit at the same time, the party doesn’t know what to do. It said it would seek legal advice on what to do next. [BusinessTech]

• Despite talk of clean governance from leadership, irregular expenditure among state departments and state companies has risen to R61.4 billion in the latest financial year, up from R50 billion previously. Auditor-General Kimi Makwetus said that this was reflective of government’s non-compliance and lack of discipline in following proper procurement procedures – a trend seen, and only getting worse, over the last 11 years. [Daily Maverick]

• The biggest reason why mobile data prices remain stubbornly high in countries like South Africa is because there is a lack of competition, a new report has found. The latest Affordability Report by the Alliance for Affordable Internet found that in consolidated markets dominant companies keep prices high. South Africa’s mobile market is dominated by two companies, MTN and Vodacom, which account for 72% of the market. [MyBroadband]

• South Africa’s rand dipped on Wednesday as consumer price data fell more than expected in September to 4.1% in annual terms, raising the prospect of further monetary policy easing. On Thursday the rand was trading at R14.62 to the dollar, R18.89 to the pound and R16.29 to the euro.