Business

5 important things happening in South Africa today

Staff Writer

 ·21 Apr 2023

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

• Face the facts: Reserve Bank governor Lesetja Kganyago says that South Africa needs to be honest with itself and can’t have everything – urging the government to make the difficult fiscal choices to bring stability and credibility to its budget commitments. He said that the government could not keep promising South Africans outcomes it simply cannot deliver and needs to start being honest about the trade-offs. [BusinessLive]

• Bold choices: Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa says that the government needs to look at and consider any option to keep the lights on, saying that “bold” choices need to be made. This week, the minister presented plans for extending South Africa’s coal power stations’ lifespans to Cabinet. This was noted, but Cabinet told the minister to do further work and crunch numbers to further detail the plan and to provide solutions to end the energy crisis. [News24]

• Employment fudging: Solidarity Research Institute head Connie Mulder says that Stats SA’s unemployment figures are misleading, noting that the broader definition of unemployment – which includes job seekers who have lost hope and are no longer actively seeking work. While the narrow definition is used as the international standard, if the differences between the two falls outside 6%, then the narrow definition should be dropped as it points to long-term unemployment, Mulder said. [Daily Investor]

• Coalition era: South Africa is priming for its coalition era, with the governing party, the ANC, now laying out formal plans for team-ups and partnerships ahead of the 2024 elections. The party will draft its plans at a National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting this weekend. Party insiders said the ANC isn’t necessarily expecting to lose 50% of the vote in the elections but needs to plan for whatever outcome. [Daily Maverick]

• Markets: The South African rand gained on Thursday as the dollar slipped after US weekly jobless claims data fuelled hopes the US Federal Reserve could slow interest rate hikes. The dollar was last tracking 0.19% weaker. Local traders cautioned that the South African Reserve Bank would continue to hike interest rates after inflation numbers released this week were “stubbornly high”. On Friday, the rand was trading at R18.08/$, R19.83/€ and R22.47/£. Brent crude is trading at $81 a barrel.