5 important things happening in South Africa today

·18 Jul 2023

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

NHI doesn’t have to kill private sector: Momentum Health Services says the government will not need to raise taxes to fund the National Health Insurance (NHI) if it allows the private sector to expand its affordable healthcare solutions. Currently, medical schemes are not allowed to offer low-cost benefit options. Momentum said that allowing the private sector to introduce low-cost health insurance would also take an additional burden off public healthcare facilities, arguing that the private sector does not have to be killed to introduce the NHI. [News24]

Outlook stays the same: Rating agency Fitch has decided to keep South Africa’s credit rating unchanged at BB- and has maintained the outlook at stable. The country’s favourable debt structure and its current ability to continue servicing its debt supported the current rating. However, it said that credit rating was constrained by low economic growth, which was furthered by load shedding. It added that there are still concerns about the high government debt-to-GDP ratio. [SABC News]

No confidence in Durban: Business confidence in Durban declined in Q1 2023, with load shedding, poor service delivery, crime and multiple natural disasters, leading to a second consecutive drop. According to the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s macroeconomics research unit’s Durban Business Confidence Index (BCI), the downward trend mirrors the overall decline in national business confidence, which has seen five consecutive drops. However, the Durban BCI score of 43.27 in Q1 2023 is still higher than the national average of 27, the researchers said. [TimesLive]

Lottery plan: Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition Ebrahim Patel has asked the National Lotteries Commission (NLC) to enforce measures to counter corruption. This includes the organisation publishing a list of Lottery grants paid in the first quarter (April to June) of the new financial year, with the organisation publishing these details quarterly instead of yearly, as the previous corruption-riddled administration did. The NLC must also create internal processes that assist investigations into corruption. [GroundUp]

Markets: The rand was slightly stronger on Monday after Fitch reaffirmed South Africa’s BB- credit rating with a stable outlook, despite ongoing load shedding. Later this week, investors will shift their attention to the Consumer Price Inflation data on Wednesday and the interest rate decision on Thursday. On Tuesday (18 July), the rand was trading at R17.98/$, R20.26/€, and R23.57/£. Brent crude is trading at $78.63 a barrel. [Nasdaq]

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