Business

5 important things happening in South Africa today

Staff Writer

 ·28 Nov 2019

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

• Government says it is working “urgently” to ensure SAA survives, repeating the same line it has given for the past few years, saying it cannot continue as is. SAA only managed to pay 50% of worker salaries this month, having run out of money. It said that it needs R2 billion from government to keep operating – however it also refuses to publish financial records, or turn up to parliamentary meetings to account for its finances. [Reuters]

• The South African Reserve Bank says it is difficult to model the effect of a Moody’s downgrade for South Africa, but even in the best case scenario, the country will lose billions of rands in foreign investment. The SARB said that the impact would be between R75 billion and R120 billion in foreign investment being pulled out of the country, with the wider impact on the markets dependent on the global attitude towards emerging markets at the time it happens. [IOL]

• Sanral says that its tender for a 6 year contract to collect toll fees is not exclusively for the Gauteng e-tolling project. The roads agency said that only party of the multi-billion rand tender is aimed towards the GFIP, and it is ready to take whatever action is required by national government when it finally makes a decision on what to do with the controversial open tolling system. [Moneyweb]

• Joburg residents should know by the end of the day who their new mayor is, as the City of Joburg council moves to vote for a new leader following former mayor Herman Mashaba’s exit on Wednesday. The DA has fielded Funzela Ngobeni for the top spot, while the EFF has nominated Musa Novela for the job. The ANC is yet to nominate a candidate. The EFF has promised to ‘give’ the City of Tshwane to whichever major party votes for their nominee. [EWN]

• South Africa’s rand firmed on Wednesday, tracking its emerging market peers after comments from US President Donald Trump spurred hopes of a resolution to the trade dispute between the United States and China. On Thursday the rand was at R14.76 to the dollar, R19.09 to the pound and R16.25 to the euro.