Business

5 important things happening in South Africa today

Staff Writer

 ·18 Nov 2022

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

• Eskom tenders unlawful: Tenders worth about R16 billion awarded by Eskom in October 2021 to provide maintenance and outage repair services at its 15 coal-fired power stations have been set aside and declared unlawful by the High Court in Pretoria. This comes after an engineering group was disqualified from the tender process due to a filing error and subsequently lodged a complaint. Concerns have bee raised that critical repair services will now be interrupted. [Moneyweb]

• Construction mafia crisis: Construction companies have called for the government and the South African Police Service (SAPS) to prioritise the growing problem of criminal groups that extort money from construction and other businesses. A research report in June 2022 found that in 2019 at least 183 infrastructure and construction projects worth more than R63 billion had been affected by these disruptions across the country. [BusinessLive]

• Abuse of funds: A minerals group has approached the high court to impose tighter governance controls over local community development trusts to ensure that hundreds of millions in financial benefits will reach the broader community, breaking a “pattern of abuse” of the funds and addressing a “gross lack of governance”. It is estimated that only 16% of the R530 million paid into the four funds since 2009 have been funnelled into projects to uplift and improve the lives of the community. [News24]

• JRA CEO in hot water: Johannesburg Roads Agency (JRA) announced that its CEO has been placed on special leave pending the outcome of a “re-authentication” process regarding his credentials. This follows a report alleging the credentials he provided to land his R3.5-million-a-year job were either lies or overstated. The CEO claims to have various degrees, including a Masters and a Doctorate, but investigations revealed this is not the case. [Daily Maverick]

• Markets: The South African rand slipped in early trade on Thursday (17 November) as the dollar rebounded on data conflicting with a narrative of retreating U.S. inflation leading to slower interest rate hikes. On Friday (18 November), the rand was trading at R17.35/$, R17.99/€ and R20.64/£. Brent crude is trading at $90.41 a barrel. [Nasdaq]