Business

5 important things happening in South Africa today

Staff Writer

 ·10 Mar 2020

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

Load shedding: Stage 2 load shedding will kick off from 09h00 today. [BusinessTech]

• No escape: Even without the coronavirus, the likelihood of South Africa posting first quarter growth in 2020 was extremely slim, economists say – but with the current market panic and spread of the virus, a negative quarter continuing the recession is all but guaranteed. Worse yet, the longer the outbreak continues, the more likely it is that the country’s annual growth figure will also be negative. No industry is really immune. [Moneyweb]

• More to come: Health minister Zweli Mkhize says that seeing the number of cases of coronavirus in South Africa climb to seven was no surprise, as they were all part of the same group and had close exposure. Two more people from the group are awaiting their test results. The health department is now trying to trace everyone who came into contact with the seven confirmed cases as part of its attempts to contain the virus. [EWN]

• So long Sasol: Petrochemical group Sasol was the hardest hit by the Monday market collapse, seeing around R47 billion of its market value wiped in one day. The fall was led by the shock oil price war which erupted overnight, where Saudi Arabia moved to increase output and cut prices, after Russia backed out of an OPEC agreement. Sasol was also recently hit with a ratings downgrade to junk, as it continues to suffer delays to its Lake Charles project. [Business Day]

• Burning questions: The Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU) is under fire from the Department of Labour (DoL) over its financial statements, which show over R260 million in payments made, but with no clarity as to who, or how they are related to the union. The payments made are headlined under vague titles like “employee costs”,”other employees” and “services rendered”, but the DoL says this is not enough and wants details, and to see contracts. [Daily Maverick]

• Markets: South African stocks plunged to a more than four-year low on Monday, joining a global sell-off in riskier assets as oil prices collapsed more than 30%, hitting chemical and energy firm Sasol the hardest. The decline in the Johannesburg All-Share index and Top-40 index was compounded by fears the impact from the fast-spreading coronavirus will intensify. On Tuesday the rand was trading at R15.96 to the dollar, R20.85 to the pound and R18.19 to the euro. [XE]