Business

5 important things happening in South Africa today

Staff Writer

 ·10 Oct 2022

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

• Germany doubles funding to South Africa: Germany announced on Friday that it would contribute an additional €‎355 million (R6.2 billion) towards South Africa’s fight against climate change. This is on top of what it will contribute as part of SA’s Just Economic Transition Partnership (JetP), promised at COP26 a year ago – which saw five international partners pledge to raise $8.5 billion towards SA’s transition to cleaner energy sources. The bulk of Germany’s additional funding will go towards grants and preferential loans. [News24]

• South Africa on the edge: Seasoned economist Dawie Roodt and former reconstruction and development minister Jay Naidoo say South Africa is in serious trouble and is showing signs of a failed state. They also noted that record unemployment levels and the fact that many young people will not find a job in their lifetime show the country is in serious trouble. Roodt added that the high poverty levels, rising food costs, and poorly run state-owned enterprises like Eskom and Transnet are a recipe for mass unrest and disorder – putting South Africa on the brink of disaster. [DailyInvestor]

• Transnet strike’s knock-on effect: The ongoing strike at Transnet threatens South Africa’s export industry and its jobs. The South African berry industry has called for an urgent intervention to end the ongoing strike, saying the wage dispute has come during the peak of the berry export season – impacting the entire berry value chain and 30,000 livelihoods who depend on the industry as well as the projected R3 billion in export revenue this season. [EWN]

• Joburg mayoral committee announced: The mayor of Johannesburg, Dada Morero, has announced his mayoral committee, and the new members will officially be sworn in on Monday (10 October). This comes after the DA’s Mpho Phalatse was removed as mayor on 30 September in a motion of no confidence. The DA is still going ahead with court action to reverse Phalatse’s removal. [News24]

• Markets: South Africa’s rand weakened on Friday, as the dollar strengthened after a stronger-than-expected US jobs report. Shares on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange dropped slightly, with the Top-40 and the broader all-share indexes falling around 0.25%. The rand is currently trading at R18.17/$, R17.66/€ and R20.11/£. Brent crude is trading at $96.95 a barrel. [Reuters]