Business

5 important things happening in South Africa today

Staff Writer

 ·17 May 2017

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

• Former mining minister Ngoako Ramatlhodi says he’s prepared to make his damning claims against Eskom CEO Brian Molefe, chair Ben Ngubane, and president Jacob Zuma under oath – which will make any attempt to shut down talk of a judicial commission of enquiry into state capture very difficult, analysts say. The former MP is accusing the three officials of pushing him to blackmail mining group Glencore to aid the Gupta family.

• Disgraced social development minister Bathabile Dlamini is refusing to explain how she reached the figure of R6 billion when she was asked how much it would cost for her department to take over the delivery of social grants in South Africa. Dlamini made a rare but brief appearance to answer questions about her department. The Sassa CEO expressed confusion over the number, saying he had no idea how the minister reached such a large figure.

• Ratings agency Fitch has expressed concern that South Africa has done nothing to improve its economic and political landscape following a downgrade to junk status earlier this year. In discussions with the Federation of Unions of South Africa (Fedusa), the firm wanted to know about the expected outcomes of the ANC’s elective conference, which has caused major political instability. It said that the situation in South Africa was getting worse.

• Despite DA leader Mmusi Maimane singing the praises of the party’s ability to run coalition governments, the coalition set up in the newly-won Nelson Mandela Bay metro has crumbled, with DA mayor Athol Trollip deciding to fire his deputy, the UDM’s Mongameli Bobani, after months of tensions. The UDM has apparently notified the DA that it wishes to withdraw from the coalition in NMB.

• South Africa’s rand hit a three-week high against the dollar on Tuesday as the greenback weakened broadly on worries over U.S. President Donald Trump’s disclosure that he had shared information with Russian officials, while stocks were flat. On Wednesday the rand was trading at R13.09 to the dollar R16.93 to the pound and R14.54 to the euro.