Business

5 important things happening in South Africa today

Seth Thorne

 ·9 Jan 2024

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

• Rand-fixing case collapses: The Competition Appeal Court (CAC) dismissed the case for a large majority of the banks – including local banks – in the Competition Commission’s eight-year investigation into alleged collusion and rand manipulation in the New York foreign exchange market more than a decade ago. [BusinessTech]

• Nzimande denies kickback allegations: Minister of Higher Education, Science and Technology, Blade Nzimande, has denied the allegations of corruption levelled against him by Outa and says he will voluntarily submit himself to the ethics bodies of the ANC and the SACP. Nzimande said that the corruption allegations against him were part of a smear campaign aimed at tarnishing his name. [Business Day]

• Mbalula under fire: ANC Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula has been facing widespread backlash after he dropped a bombshell about the party’s deceit when supporting then-president Jacob Zuma over upgrades done on his Nkandla Homestead. Mbalula admitted the party lied when calling Zuma’s swimming pool a ‘fire pool’ and went to great lengths to play out the receipt. “The [then] police minister [Nathi Nhleko] was sweating, seeing that this was a lie, because it is difficult to explain lies. People have lost their careers because of that thing,” he said. [Daily Maverick]

• Woolworths Café going cashless: Social media was abuzz after a social media post went viral of some WCafé stores beginning to experiment with cashless payments. The company said that their reasoning was based on data it had collected, showing that they received relatively few cash payments. Their retail stores will continue with cash payments. [Daily Investor]

• Markets: The South African rand strengthened ever so slightly with the dollar dropping on Monday as investors continued to digest last week’s mixed U.S. economic data. On Tuesday (9 January), the rand was trading at R18.62 to the dollar, R23.69 to the pound, and R20.37 to the euro. Oil is trading at $76.25 a barrel. [Reuters]