5 important things happening in South Africa today
·27 Feb 2017
Here’s what is happening in and affecting South Africa today:
- The South African Communist Party (SACP) has confirmed weekend reports that there are plans to stage a mass resignation in the event that finance minister Pravin Gordhan gets the chop. At briefing held on Sunday, the party said that its eight members that part of Zuma’s current cabinet refuse to be part of ‘bad decisions’ and would resign if adverse action was taken against Gordhan.
- While local reaction to finance minister Pravin Gordhan’s budget speech was mixed, but largely disappointed, all three global ratings agencies are singing a different tune. Fitch, Moody’s and S&P Global have given the budget a warm reception, but still hold a negative outlook for the country, warning of the political climate and the impact of ailing state-owned companies.
- Prasa CEO Collins Letsoalo is expected to address Sunday reports that he hiked his own salary by over 350% to around R5.9 million per year. The allegation was contained in an explosive report by the Sunday Times, which reported that Letsoalo expected the same perks as his predecessor Lucky Montana. Montana was fired are being found involved with corrupt activity.
- Parliament has slammed claims from the DA saying that this year’s SONA cost taxpayers R11 million, pointing out that the cost was actually only R4 million – reduced from R4.75 million in 2016. However, the DA insists that the increased show of force from the SANDF pushed costs higher. Parliament said the DA’s figure was pure fantasy.
- South African stocks, led by big resource companies, fell on Friday after a broad-based commodity sell off but some gold and platinum producers bucked the trend as precious spot prices hit multi-month highs. On Monday the rand was trading at R12.95 to the dollar R16.11 to the pound and R13.69 to the euro.
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