5 important things happening in South Africa today
·5 Sep 2017
Here’s what is happening in and affecting South Africa today:
- The EFF will head to the Constitutional Court today in a bid to impeach president Jacob Zuma. While the party is not seeking the ConCourt to get directly involved, it is looking for a ruling on Speaker Baleka Mbete, saying she failed in her duty to hold the president to account over the Nkandla scandal. Impeachment requires a two-thirds majority in Parliament.
- South African Airways is reportedly being forced to cut down the size of its fleet to try and save costs. The failing airline is looking to reduce its fleet by as much as 15%, while also making other cost-saving moves like reducing the number of flights by 700 each month. SAA faces a R6.8 billion debt repayment at the end of this month.
- Telecoms minister, Siyabonga Cwele, says that new regulations that will bring down the prices of mobile data in South Africa will be released next month. The regulations will tackle the issue of expiring mobile data, and also force mobile operators to be more specific and timely with notifications of depleted data on their networks.
- The British public relations authority has kicked controversial PR firm Bell Pottinger out of its group, following findings that the firm run an unethical campaign based on racial division in South Africa for the Gupta family through their Oakbay companies. Bell Pottinger’s membership was terminated with immediate effect, and cannot reapply for five years.
- South Africa’s rand weakened slightly against the dollar on Monday ahead of second-quarter GDP numbers and as safe-haven assets gained after a nuclear test by North Korea; but stocks were weaker. On Tuesday the rand was trading at R12.95 to the dollar, R16.74 to the pound and R15.42 to the euro.
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