Finance

5 important things happening in South Africa today

Staff Writer

 ·7 Jul 2021

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

Coronavirus: In South Africa, there have been 15,501 new cases of Covid-19, taking the total reported to 2,090,909. Deaths have reached 62,628 (+457), while recoveries have climbed to 1,845,038, leaving the country with a balance of 183,243 active cases. The total number of vaccines administered is 3,631,102 (+171,442).

• Support: A cabinet meeting will be held today, with eyes on several key decisions that need to be made. Chief among these is a decision on the reopening of schools, and a decision on whether or not to reopen TERS payments for those who have been affected by the latest lockdown level 4 restrictions. While president Cyril Ramaphosa announced the level 4 restrictions would only be in place for two weeks, most businesses and analysts expect this to be extended. However, this opens entire industries up to even more hardship, with many pleading to the government to open up support. Currently, no additional funding has been made available. [News24]

• Corruption: Briefings on investigations into various cases of PPE corruption and other Covid-related contracts had to be put on hold this week. Most notable was the report on the dodgy R150 million Digital Vibes contract involving health minister Zweli Mkhize, which was delayed at the 11th hour due to more information being added to the report. This was only revealed on Tuesday. Investigating officers say that several investigations are at sensitive stages, and they are hesitant to provide full briefings on these, so they do not give anything away. Mkhize has been on special leave, with his future in the role dependant on the findings of the report. [Daily Maverick]

• Arrest: The arrest of Jacob Zuma is turning out to be just as controversial as the path the country took to get to that point. Judgement has been reserved in Zuma’s high court bid to stop his arrest. Zuma’ legal team has argued that the high courts have jurisdiction over the police and can freeze an arrest order from a higher court. However, the state capture commission said that the high court cannot overrule such an order. Police minister Bheki Cele and SA Police Service boss Khehla Sitole could also face being found in contempt of the Constitutional Court if they do not execute the arrest order. [EWN, BusinessLive]

• Contempt: The State Capture Commission has hit back at claims made by Jacob Zuma in his Constitutional Court application to have his prison sentence rescinded. The commission says that Zuma’s application is full of errors and falsehoods, accusing the former president of being up to his old tricks. A ruling can be rescinded if it was reached ‘erroneously’ in the absence of the accused. However, the commission said that it cannot apply when the accused is willingly absent. Zuma defied almost every summons to appear in court to explain himself, and willingly chose not to take part in Constitutional proceedings and to ignore court orders and be found in contempt. [TimesLive]

• Markets: Currencies in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa rose on Tuesday as the dollar continued its decline due to mixed labour data, with South Africa’s rand leading the gains on a rise in the prices of major commodities exported by the country. The rand rose as much as 0.7% to R14.15 to the dollar, supported by rising gold, base metal, and iron ore prices. The currency is now again the best performing emerging market unit this year with a more than 3% gain, overtaking Brazil’s real. On Wednesday, the rand was trading at R14.35/$, R16.97/€ and R19.81/£. [Reuters]