Business

5 important things happening in South Africa today

Luke Fraser

 ·28 Apr 2023

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

• Eskom privatisation: Minerals Council SA says Eskom should not receive an over R250 billion bailout, arguing that the embattled power utility should be privatised. The council said that Eskom should sell or concede all of its coal-fired power plants to the private sector, concede its transmission sector for a 15- or 20-year period to the private sector, and sell some of its and municipalities’ disruption infrastructure to non-state operators. [Business Day]

• SAA takeover fears: The Competition Commission of South Africa will soon release a statement regarding its recommendations for the proposed 51% takeover of South African Airways by Takatso consortium. There are concerns within the domestic airline industry that the deal could damage competition. Global Aviation Ltd is a minority shareholder of Takatso consortium. However, domestic airline Lift currently uses a fleet of planes leased from Global Aviation, raising concerns that Lift and SAA will be able to control ticket prices. [Moneyweb]

• No more middlemen: The KwaZulu-Natal Education Department says it will not use a middleman when it awards tenders to feed impoverished learners. This follows businessman Manzini Zungu and his company Pacina Retail’s failure to supply over 5,000 schools in the province with food during March, despite receiving a R2.1 billion tender in November last year. A provincial Education spokesperson said that service providers will now deal with the schools directly. [EWN]

• US Trade concerns: Sydney Mufamadi, President Cyril Ramaphosa’s national security advisor, is leading a delegation in Washington DC to make sure that South Africa is not removed from the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa) – a law which allows quota-free access to the US market – which is set to be extended or terminated in 2025. There are fears that South Africa could be ejected from the deal prior to 2025 due to its controversial stance on the Russian invasion of Ukraine. [Daily Maverick]

• Markets:  The South African rand saw minimal movement on Thursday, remaining well above R18.00/$. In global news, Oil prices steadied on Thursday after the previous day’s price drop on worries about a possible recession erased the supportive impact of a surprise cut to OPEC production targets this month. On Friday (28 April), the rand was trading at R18.33/$, R20.19/€, and R22.87/£. Brent crude is trading at $78.63 a barrel. [Nasdaq]