Business

5 important things happening in South Africa today

Staff Writer

 ·9 Mar 2022

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

Coronavirus: In South Africa, there have been 16 new Covid-19 deaths, taking the total reported to 99,625. The country has 17,490 active cases and a recovery rate of 96.8%.

• Cannabis win: Changes South Africa’s proposed cannabis laws have been tabled in parliament, which will enable the government to push ahead with its plan to establish a new industrial sector valued at R28 billion a year. Lawmakers hope to pass the amendments to the Cannabis for Private Purposes bill by the end of April. The move follows an announcement by President Cyril Ramaphosa in the latest State of the Nation address that the government was ready to push toward the legalisation and regulation of the commercial cannabis industry, which he said could create 130,000 jobs. [Mail&Guardian]

• Invalid driving licences: With the grace period for the renewal of driving licences expiring at the end of March, hundreds of thousands of motorists are set to be without a valid driving licence card. The minister of transport said that the current backlog of driving licence renewals as of 25 February was 534,807. As a result, the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) has requested the minister to extend the deadline and adjust regulations covering all driving licence cards to extend the renewal dates to 10 years. The group said failing to do so would lead to an even more significant backlog, leading to more motorists driving around with invalid licence cards. [Moneyweb]

• Vaccinations for the vulnerable: An expert on infectious disease, doctor Richard Lessels, warned South Africa that another wave of Covid-19 could still hit the country. He stressed that the next wave might be similar to the second or third wave; however, it is still possible that it could make people very sick and lead to oxygen being administered to patients in hospitals. Lessels said that to have the best protection against a possible next wave, vaccinations for vulnerable people at a high risk of being hospitalised should be South Africa’s priority. Several experts have weighed in on when the next wave could hit, most pointing to end-April, early May. [ENCA]

• Spectrum auction: Rain and Telkom were the first winners in South Africa’s radio frequency spectrum auction held this week. The first opt-in auction was held between Cell C, Liquid Intelligent technologies, Rain, and Telkom, and excluded dominating players MTN and Vodacom. Bids of R1.1 billion and R1.5 billion were put forward by Rain and Telkom, respectively. The main auction stage will begin on Thursday, 10 March 2022, using an online platform. Vodacom and MTN will join the other four operators in bidding for spectrum during this stage. [MyBroadBand]

• Markets: Global share markets fell on Tuesday as oil prices continued to climb, driven by the United States banning Russian oil and other energy imports due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Britain also said that it would phase out imports of Russian oil and oil products by the end of 2022. Brent crude rose to $131 a barrel before settling at $127 as sanctions on Russia, which ships between 7 and 8 million barrels of crude to global markets a day, have been targeted by Western sanctions. The rand is currently trading at R15.27/$, R16.67/€ and R20.04/£. [Nasdaq]