Business

5 important things happening in South Africa today

Staff Writer

 ·31 Jul 2018

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

• Eskom has warned that power disruptions are likely this week, as wage protests have continued to disrupt its operations. Unions are demanding that bonuses be paid before they accept an offered wage increase of 7%. Workers have been sabotaging and disrupting power supply for 2 months. [Reuters]

• Outa, the DA and taxi associations are planning mass protest today against rising fuel prices and what they call a “tax attack”. The groups plan to gather and march at 10h00 to hand over a memorandum to National Treasury. They want the Road Accident Fund levy cut by 20% or R1.00. [eNCA]

• The City of Johannesburg will be freeing up over 71 inner city properties for development. The city has put out a request for proposal to developers, looking at long-term leases. The developments will be for various projects, but with focus on mixed-rental residential. [TimesLive]

• Investec has hit back at the Competition Commission’s collusion case against it and other South African banks, saying that the watchdog has made only broad allegations and provided no evidence of collusion. The commission is seeking to find Investec, Absa, Standard Bank and many others 10% of their annual turnover. [Moneyweb]

• South Africa’s rand continued to eke out gains on Monday despite a slide by some emerging market units as the local currency attracted buyers looking for high yields. On Tuesday the rand was trading at R13.15 to the dollar, R17.27 to the pound and R15.41 to the euro.