Business

5 important things happening in South Africa today

Staff Writer

 ·17 Oct 2019

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

• South Africa is at very real risk of being downgraded fully to junk status, analysts have warned – something that is now being exacerbated by the return of load shedding. Eyes are on finance minister Tito Mboweni and his mid-term budget speech at the end of the month, but most do not expect good news. Mboweni is expected to detail the plans government has for embattled Eskom, but some analysts say the market is wondering if enough is being done. [Media24]

• Stage 2 load shedding will again be implemented on Thursday, between 09h00 and 23h00, due to a continued shortage of capacity on Eskom’s grid. Load shedding made a surprise return on Wednesday, after the power utility ran into troubles at its power stations, which included taking capacity offline for unscheduled maintenance and a shortage of coal supply due to equipment breakdowns at the weekend. [Eskom]

• Suspended Old Mutual CEO Peter Moyo says the company’s board should be arrested and jailed for six months – saying that the country’s courts should not “let them off the hook” with just a fine. This was Moyo’s response to an affidavit submitted by the board on why it is not in contempt of a court order that reinstated Moyo’s employment contract after he was fired. The group has stopped him from returning to work, and went on to fire him a second time. [CNBCA]

• The National Prosecuting Authority’s Special Investigative Unit says that investigations into alleged fraud at multinational retail group Steinhoff, and the looting of billions of rands from VBS Mutual Bank are at an advanced stage. Steinhoff lost over R250 billion in value after the scandal broke of so-called “accounting irregularities”, while South African municipalities lost R1.2 billion in the collapse of VBS. [M&G]

• The rand fell on Wednesday as power cuts by state utility Eskom highlighted the challenges facing South Africa’s ailing economy. The dollar clawed back some of its losses in the overnight session, after the rand had retraced its steps to below R15.00 against the greenback. Markets remain cautious, however. On Thursday, the rand was trading at R14.92 to the dollar, R19.12 to the pound and R16.52 to the euro.