5 important things happening in South Africa today
·8 Sep 2017
Here’s what is happening in and affecting South Africa today:
- Uber has strongly condemned attacks against its drivers in Sandton, after two vehicles were set alight near the Gautrain station on Thursday night. The company confirmed one of the vehicles was registered to the taxi-hailing service, while the other car was still being investigated. Violence broke out between Uber and metred taxi drivers, necessitating intervention by the police.
- In a court battle with the Gupta family, the Bank of Baroda has revealed that it filed 45 suspicious transaction reports to the Financial Intelligence Centre between 16 September 2016 and 14 July 2017, amounting to R4.2-billion, involving the Guptas and their companies. The submission was used as reasons why the bank could no longer do business with the family.
- Sanlam has warned that political and policy uncertainty will keep weighing on South Africa’s economy well into 2018, keeping investor and business confidence low. While most expect things to settle after the ANC’s elective conference in December, Sanlam is less optimistic, saying that the threat of further ratings downgrades is a reality the country has to face.
- South African Airways has fired four of the whistleblowers who exposed corruption and mismanagement at the airline, and is threatening to sue the Public Protector if she orders that group must rehire them. SAA denies it fired the whistleblowers for exposing corruption, but rather for making ‘disparaging remarks’ about the airline on social media.
- South Africa’s rand weakened on Thursday following weak data on the local economy and mixed signals by the European Central Bank on its stimulus programme. On Friday the rand was trading at R12.77 to the dollar, R16.79 to the pound and R15.45 to the euro.
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