Business

5 important things happening in South Africa today

Staff Writer

 ·5 Dec 2019

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

• South Africa’s failing national airline SAA is expected to get an extra R2 billion boost from government and another R2 billion from existing lenders as it enters business rescue proceedings from today. The airline has not turned a profit since 2011 due to mismanagement and several failed turnaround strategies. The latest week-long strike by workers demanding higher pay pushed the airline to the brink of collapse. [Reuters]

• The DA says it feels betrayed by council members, following its loss of control in the City of Johannesburg yesterday. The ANC’s mayoral candidate secured 137 votes in a secret ballot, while the DA only got 101 votes. The party has 103 council members. The outcome means almost every DA coalition partner turned on the party and voted for the ANC – while some of its own members have done the same thing. [IOL]

• An investigation has found that around R800 million worth of internet resources – including those from South Africa – were stolen and sold on the black market. The resources are thousands of rare internet protocol addresses, which are allegedly being brokered as part of an inside job at the group set up to manage them. Insiders would effectively ‘steal’ these these valuable addresses, and then lease them out or sell them for thousands of dollars. [MyBroadband]

• It has been 14 months since an extradition treaty with the UAE has been written up – but we are not closer to getting the Gupta family back into South Africa to face claims of corruption. According to investigations being done by Scorpio, the reason for the long delay is due to the treaty not yet being ratified in the UAE over ‘translation concerns’. The NPA is looking to international anti-corruption experts for help on the matter. [Daily Maverick]

• South Africa’s rand clawed back some lost ground on Wednesday with renewed optimism that China and the United States would strike a trade deal outweighing a surprise third-quarter contraction in the local economy. It had slipped to a session low of 14.6980 on Tuesday as the 0.6% contraction to gross domestic product (GDP) snapped the currency’s four-session winning streak. On Thursday the rand was at R14.59 to the dollar, R19.14 to the pound and R16.17 to the euro.