Government

5 important things happening in South Africa today

Staff Writer

 ·2 Oct 2019

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

• Health minister Zweli Mkhize says to expect a lot of legislation to come from the Competition Commission’s private healthcare report. The report found that consumers were paying high fees for private healthcare, and undertaking procedures that were often unnecessary. Mkhize said the blame for this lies with the private healthcare sector as well as government, as it is a collaborative environment, but fixes are on the way. [Enca]

• Government doesn’t want to raid pension funds and force them to invest in failing state companies, says ANC economic head Enoch Godongwana. However, he says a discussion must be had about how to channel workers’ savings towards development. The narrative of government raiding pension funds is false, he said.[Business Day – Premium]

• A 2014 report into the so-called ‘rogue unit’ at SARS, leaked by the EFF, has exposed to the public the names of several government operatives from the State Security Agency, and also given insight into how government agencies worked to protect former president Jacob Zuma, and laid out the genesis of the campaign against Pravin Gordhan and other former SARS officials who were targeted by the findings – which were never in the original scope to begin with. [Daily Maverick]

• Civil action group and key e-toll opponents Outa say Sanral’s latest financial reporting shows that the controversial tolling project has failed, and it is time to pull the plug. Over the 5 years and 4 months since it launched, e-tolls were supposed to pull in R16 billion – however Sanral has managed only to get R4.5 billion, while needing government bailouts to cover its debt. The group has also been forced to disregard billions of rands in tolls that it will never collect from motorists. [Outa]

• South Africa’s rand weakened to a one-month low on Tuesday, slumping in line with emerging market peers as uncertainty related to US-China trade war, coupled with global growth worries, kept investors wary of riskier assets. On Wednesday the rand was at R15.32 to the dollar, R18.82 to the pound and R16.75 to the euro.