5 important things happening in South Africa today

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

• The curators of VBS bank have launched an urgent application to liquidate assets involved in fraud at the group. What started as a liquidity crisis, ended up being gross levels of fraud being perpetuated at the group. The Reserve Bank said that it is less confident that VBS will remain open, but plans have been put in place to protect depositors. [Moneyweb]

• Absa bank has unveiled its new look which will underpin its branding across Africa. The launch marks the bank’s move away from operating under the Barclays Africa name, and a new identity as a truly African financial group. The UK’s Braclays remains a partner with a 14.9% share in the company. [BusinessTech]

• Eskom wage negotiations are being escalated by unions, who demand to meet with finance minister Nhlanhla Nene and public enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan. Eskom is offering a 7% wage increase, up from its initial 0% stance. Workers have threatened to shut the country’s power off if wage demands aren’t met. [EWN]

• The South African mining industry is heading into wage negotiations, on the backdrop of declines across the sector. Unions are demanding entry-level underground pay of between R10,500 and R12,500 a month – a significant increase from the R7,662 that was agreed to last year. [Bloomberg]

• South Africa’s rand extended gains on Tuesday from the last three sessions as a lull in global trade war fears lifted demand for emerging currencies. On Wednesday the rand was trading at R13.43 to the dollar, R17.80 to the pound and R15.75 to the euro.