Business

5 important things happening in South Africa today

Staff Writer

 ·21 Jul 2022

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

• Rate hikes: With inflation at 13-year highs, South Africans face added pressure from the Reserve Bank’s rate hike announcement due later on Thursday. There is a wide consensus that the central bank will definitely hike rates, with the majority of economists anticipating a 50 basis point hike. However, with inflation numbers surprising on the upside at 7.4% in June, this has opened the door for debate around an even higher hike of 75bp. The announcement will be made at 15h00. [Fin24]

• Transformation push: President Cyril Ramaphosa wants more support from the private sector on the government’s transformation agenda, saying that more needs to be done to deal with the structural inequalities in the economy. He wants to secure greater diversity in company ownership in South Africa, and to see greater promotion of black emerging businesses. He said access to finance and concentration of ownership remain barriers for black businesses in the country – particularly those in townships. [Moneyweb]

• Unpaid bills: The ANC is once again drawing the ire of its employees, with salaries for June going unpaid. The political party has suffered intermittent protest and go-slow action from employees over the last four years as it continually struggles to pay its workers. The party will be hosting its policy conference next month but is now facing pressure from unpaid workers to postpone it. The ANC said the conference would not be delayed, and it would seek donations to pay staff salaries. [Daily Maverick]

• Monkeypox: The World Health Organisation will meet to decide whether or not to declare the current swell of monkeypox cases a global health emergency. There have been almost 14,000 cases reported in 70 countries, with the spread deviating from historic patterns of transfer. Should the outbreak be declared an emergency, focus will be placed on preventative measures such as vaccines and public education. South Africa has confirmed only three cases of monkeypox, two of which were not linked to travel abroad. [EWN, 702]

• Markets: The rand pared losses from earlier in the day to slip 0.2% after headline consumer inflation was shown to quicken more than forecast to 7.4% year-on-year in June. Analysts on Thursday expect the country’s central bank to announce a further 50 basis point hike in the repo rate, which would mark the fifth hike in a row. On Thursday the rand was trading at R17.10 to the dollar, R20.50 to the pound and R17.46 to the euro. Brent crude oil was trading at $106 a barrel. [Reuters]