5 important things happening in South Africa today

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

• The South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) is apparently repeating its same mistake, having come to an agreement with Net1’s Cash Payment Services for a new 2 year contract to handle social grants – however, it requires Treasury’s sign off. In 2014, the Constitutional Court ruled that the current CPS contract was illegal and invalid. Sassa has again no put the grants contract out to tender. The department has not signed off on the interim contract, but has not given any detailed plan on how 17 million grants are to be paid next month.

• State Security Minister David Mahlobo wants to regulate social media in South Africa, saying that it was government’s responsiblity to clamp down on “false narratives” being spread online. Rights groups have pushed back against the minister’s position, saying he has no right to limit free speech in that way, and that it was a sign of political parties who are losing power – when they lose control, they target media.

• Following a dismal showing at a Sassa press conference held on Sunday, political parties, unions and other bodies are calling for social development minister Bathabile Dlamini to get the chop. Dlamini refused to answer pressing questions about the state grants crisis with some parties arguing that it was the minister that manufactured the crisis to begin with. Numsa went further and said the ANC as a whole was to blame, and it is evidence that the party doesn’t care about the people of South Africa.

• With a stronger rand and greater demand for commodities, the South African Reserve Bank is in an optimal position for rate cuts this year – but politics may get in the way. According to economists speaking to Bloomberg, the end of the drought and should also lead to lower inflation; however the volatile political situation is the constant cloud hanging over South Africa’s good fortune, threatening to undo a lot of good.

• South Africa’s rand gained on Friday, taking advantage of a slip by the greenback to take back some losses from the previous session as pressure grew around the increasing likelihood of a U.S. interest rate rise this month. On Monday the rand was trading at R13.02 to the dollar, R16.00 to the pound and R13.80 to the euro.