Finance

5 important things happening in South Africa today

Staff Writer

 ·1 Aug 2019

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

• A parliamentary committee will discuss a request to look into the fitness of Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane to hold her office. The committee will likely be established in September. Calls for Mkhwebane to step down or be removed from the office have been gaining momentum following a series of defeats in court, when subjects of her reports have challenged them. Mkhwebane has also been accused of pushing political agendas in her investigations, specifically targeting the Ramaphosa presidency. [Reuters]

• The National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union (Nehawu) has threatened to shut the country down should the government make any move to cut salaries in the public sector. Treasury’s director-general, Dondo Mowgajane last week said that a 10% wage reduction in the public sector could help the country cut costs. Nehawu, which represents over 235,000 public sector workers, said it would never enter negotiations to discuss reductions. [IOL]

• The City of Tshwane has admitted that it bent the rules to give senior staff an 18% increase. The increase was implemented without approval from bargaining councils, where the proposal is still pending. The increase has resulted in chaos in the country’s capital, where employees who didn’t receive the increase shut down the city, leading to blockages in service delivery, with reports of intimidation and other threats. [ENCA]

• Action is being taken against those implicated in the capture of state institutions, with three SARS executives being suspended based on the allegations made in the Nugent Commission into the revenue service. While SARS stressed that these were precautionary suspensions (and not a finding of wrongdoing), the executives will now go through a disciplinary process to determine their standing. [TimesLive]

• South Africa’s rand steadied against the dollar in late trade on Wednesday, as investors awaited a likely cut in interest rates by the US Federal Reserve, shifting the spotlight away from domestic economic troubles. On Thursday the rand was at R14.35 to the dollar, R17.41 to the pound and R15.86 to the euro.