5 important things happening in South Africa today
·25 Aug 2017
Here’s what is happening and affecting South Africa today:
- The DA expects a “strong sanction” against the Guptas’ former public relations firm Bell Pottinger, after the party received confirmation on Thursday afternoon that its complaint against the firm had been upheld. The party said that the UK’s Public Relations and Communications Association (PRCA) professional practices committee agreed that Bell Pottinger violated its Professional Charter.
- Banks are feeling increasingly nervous about an implosion at the bankrupt SAA, with Citibank being the second bank to refuse to extend a loan to the sinking company. In June, Standard Chartered Bank refused to roll over its loan of R2.2bn to SAA. The move required the Treasury to step in with an urgent bail-out.
- Steinhoff has denied a German media report on executive fraud in the company which sent shares in the retailer into a freefall yesterday. The company rejected the allegations as ‘dishonest’, saying substantial facts and allegations are wrong or misleading.
- The ANC December elective conference will be a definitive event for Woolworths, it said at a results presentation on Thursday. The retailer released its worst results in almost a decade on tough trading conditions in SA and Australia, saying that until political certainty was reached in mid-December, it was effectively ‘on hiatus’.
- The South African rand weakened on Thursday, weighed down by expectations of lower domestic interest rates and cautious trade ahead of U.S. Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen’s speech at a central bankers’ meeting. On Friday the rand was trading at R13.18 to the dollar, R16.90 to the pound and R15.56 to the euro.
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