5 important things happening in South Africa today
·13 Feb 2017
Here’s what is happening in and affecting South Africa today:
- President Jacob Zuma is banking on populism for his political survival as his term as ANC president and president of the country nears its end, and his popularity and approval hits its lowest levels. Political analysts say that ‘time is running out’ for Zuma and the ANC, and that “radical economic transformation” is one of its desperate last cards to play to gain back voter support.
- Zuma has reportedly been hard at work, ordering KwaZulu Natal ANC chairperson Sihle Zikalala to drum up support for his preferred presidential candidate, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma. Sources told IOL that Zikalala and two others were summoned to Nkandla to meet with the president over the succession race – this despite the ANC NEC banning all talk of the race until later in the year. KZN is reportedly divided on Dlamini-Zuma.
- In continued back-and-forth declarations through the High Court, finance minister Pravin Gordhan says that the Gupta family has been hounding him, and that all their correspondence with him makes a mockery of their arguments in court. Gordhan is seeking an order to block him from assisting the family, while the family says they never asked for his help. Gordhan says the family has been appealing to him to use his position as head of the economy from day one.
- An apparent ANC ‘strategy and tactics document’ seen by Business Day purportedly shows the ruling party’s plan to use underhanded tactics to exploit events in the Tshwane municipality to topple the DA and retake the metro. The ANC denied it was their document, saying it would take back the metro through above-board democratic means.
- South Africa’s rand and stocks strengthened on Friday, buoyed by higher commodity prices and shrugging off a brawl in parliament during President Jacob Zuma’s annual state of the nation address. On Monday the rand was trading at R13.38 to the dollar, R16.72 to the pound and R14.21 to the euro.
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