Business

5 things you need to know in South Africa today

Staff Writer

 ·25 Jan 2017

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

• Priority crime unit the Hawks has let the Gupta family off the hook, by confirming to them in a letter that there is no investigation into them or their businesses, and there is ‘presently’ no evidence implicating them in corrupt activity. Hawks chief Berning Ntlemeza let the family know via a letter to their lawyers, which was presented with their answering affidavit in an ongoing court case presented by finance minister Pravin Gordhan.

• Despite denying the existence of the so-called “War Room” and distancing itself from an alleged R50 million election smear campaign, the ANC confirmed that it had agreed to pay the PR consultant who brought the issue to light, R1 million as part of a settlement. The party said that the settlement was part of a bid to avoid going to court, but would not elaborate on why it wanted to avoid a court case.

• The ANC Youth League has been forced to apologize to finance minister Pravin Gordhan for publicly calling on president Jacob Zuma to fire him. The league’s KwaZulu Natal branch – its biggest – had made the call saying that Gordhan had failed to transform SAA, and was protecting a few white companies. However, after a ‘difficult engagement’ with the ANC itself, it retracted the statement and apologised unreservedly.

• Ratings agency S&P Global says that rising political tensions in South Africa – amid infighting in the ruling ANC – could derail government’s efforts to improve policy implementation, leaving little room to boost spending. S&P downgraded South Africa’s local debt by one notch to BBB in December but kept the country’s sovereign credit rating unchanged at BBB-, one level above “junk” status.

• South Africa’s rand firmed on Tuesday, supported by a globally vulnerable dollar and the central bank’s decision to keep key lending rates steady as it warned of risks to the inflation outlook. On Wednesday, the rand was trading at R13.38 to the dollar, R16.75 to the pound and R14.36 to the euro.