Finance

5 important things happening in South Africa today

Staff Writer

 ·1 Jun 2018

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

• Former president Jacob Zuma’s supporters are rallying with the intent to start a new political party, the Mail & Guardian reports – and they’re hell-bent on toppling president Cyril Ramaphosa. The new party is supposedly to named the African Transformation Congress (ATC), and is said to be launching in the next few weeks. (M&G)

• A new study on cash-in-transit crimes in South Africa shows that most incidents happen with help from the inside. Researchers spoke to over 40 robbers involved in CIT crimes, who revealed that they got information from people who worked at the banks or security companies involved. There have been 140 cash-in-transit crimes in South Africa since the start of the year. [EWN]

• The petrol price is expected to hit a record high next week as it approaches R16 a litre – however analysts say that if the South African economy continues on its current path, combined with volatility in the global oil prices, fuel prices could climb even higher, even going toward R17 a litre in July and beyond. [702]

• South Africa has continued its trend of volatility, slipping to the bottom of emerging market indices on the back of its current account deficit and low foreign reserves. The lag has pushed emerging markets in Asia to the top of the pile, according to analysts. [Bloomberg]

• South Africa’s rand weakened against the US dollar on Thursday after the country’s trade balance for the year so far swung to a deficit compared with a surplus last year, pointing to the fragility of the economic rebound. On Friday the rand was at R12.70 to the dollar, R16.85 to the pound and R14.83 to the euro.