Business

5 important things happening in South Africa today

Staff Writer

 ·4 Dec 2019

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

• The City of Johannesburg needs a new mayor, and it needs to decide on one today – or else risk the provincial government getting involved. Three names are being put forward by the DA, ANC and EFF, but each party lacks the majority needed to have their candidate placed, outright. The ANC is confident it will win. If a mayor isn’t elected soon, Gauteng premier David Makhura has threatened decisive action – w which could include the city being put under administration. [ENCA]

• The National Assembly has adopted rules which will allow it to start processes to remove the Public Protector and other heads of chapter nine institutions in South Africa. Parliament discovered a gap in its rules for this purpose when parties started looking for ways to investigate and assess Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane’s fitness to hold office. These new rules have now been adopted. [EWN]

• Public Enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan says that coal providers need to come to the party to help save Eskom by bringing down the cost of coal to ‘reasonable’ levels. Gordhan said that government is in discussions with various suppliers, asking them to share the burden. He said Eskom power stations are moving back to using nearby mines that offer preferential prices. The practice was dropped during the years of state capture, where politically-connected mines were used. [IOL]

• Old Mutual and its ‘unwanted boss’ Peter Moyo are headed back to court today, continuing the six month battle between the two parties that has wiped billions off the group’s market capitalisation. Today’s court battle is related to an appeal by Old Mutual to overturn the High Court’s decision to reinstate Moyo as CEO of the company. The court found that the company did not follow due process in firing Moyo the first time. [Fin24]

• South Africa’s rand fell sharply on Tuesday after third quarter economic growth showed a surprise contraction, underlying the weak state of the economy and growing risk of credit downgrades. Most of the losses came after the gross domestic product (GDP) figures showed a 0.6% contraction as mining, manufacturing and agriculture led a broad based slowdown. On Wednesday, the rand was at R14.65 to the dollar, R19.04 to the pound and R16.22 to the euro.