Business

5 important things happening in South Africa today

Staff Writer

 ·29 Oct 2019

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

• Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan will release a “special paper” on the government’s plans to reform struggling state power firm Eskom on Tuesday, Gordhan’s ministry said in a statement. The paper will set out “in detail a comprehensive roadmap for Eskom in a reformed electricity supply industry.” [Reuters]

• Sasol’s shares have surged 15% after its co-CEOs exited the company. The oil and petroleum group took the move after an investigation revealed that the team behind a delayed and over-budget chemical project in the US had acted inappropriately and were incompetent. The team reported directly to the CEOs. Sasol has lost 51% of its market value over five years. [Daily Maverick]

• The City of Johannesburg says that 80% of its systems should come back online, as it continues to restore operations after a R500,000 ransomware hack. The city said that it is certain that no financial information was compromised in the hack. The criminals were demanding 4 bitcoin valued at half a million rand. The city missed the deadline for the payment. [EWN]

• Absa has sold its stake in the Edcon store card business to a microlender RCS, attached to French bank BNP Paribas Personal Finance. Absa bought the business from Edcon in 2012 for R10 billion. As part of the deal, RCS will be able to sell credit cards, store cards and personal loans to customers. [Fin24]

• South Africa’s rand firmed to a new six-week high on Monday as investors looked beyond an uncertain local and global backdrop and kept buying the high-yielding currency, while stocks rose, led by chemicals firm Sasol. On Tuesday the rand was at R14.57 to the dollar, R18.73 to the pound and R16.17 to the euro.