5 important things happening in South Africa today
·10 Mar 2017
Here’s what is happening in and affecting South Africa today:
- The ANC has proposed that it shrink its national executive, and limit the number of NEC members who can be in cabinet. These are just two of the proposals in a party discussion document, suggesting the NEC be ‘streamlined” from the 86 members it currently has, while only allowing 65% of cabinet positions to be filled by them.
- Communications minister Faith Muthambi is not happy with the findings of the parliamentary ad hoc committee’s findings on the SABC, calling the committee unlawful and irrational, and she’s taking its report on review. The report was adopted by the National Assembly this week, and contains a recommendation that Muthambi be fired for her role in the mess at the SABC.
- Questions hang around the multi-million rand heist that took place at OR Tambo International Airport – chief among them: what happened to the police escort that was supposed to be present? Acting national police commissioner Lieutenant-General Khomotso Phahlane has not rules out the possibility of an inside job, but appealed to the media to give the police room to investigate.
- Former president Thabo Mbeki has upset a few African leaders by insisting that South Africans are not xenophobic, downplaying ongoing tensions between locals and foreign nationals in the country. Speaking at a gathering for the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) Mbeki said that recent and previous attacks were aimed at “criminals”, so they can’t be classified as xenophobic. Some African leaders disagreed, however.
- South Africa’s rand slumped to its weakest in three weeks on Thursday as employment data from the United States showed a sharp drop in job losses, bolstering bets of a rate hike by the Federal Reserve next week. On Friday the rand was trading at R13.29 to the dollar, R16.16 to the pound and R14.09 to the euro.
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