Business

5 important things happening in South Africa today

Staff Writer

 ·5 Nov 2021

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

Coronavirus: In South Africa, there have been 319 new cases of Covid-19, taking the total reported to 2,923,054. Deaths have reached 89,251 (+31), while recoveries have climbed to 2,815,251, leaving the country with a balance of 17,963 active cases. The total number of vaccines administered is 22,965,123 (+165,441).

• Results: As the dust settles over South Africa’s local government elections, ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa has called on political parties to put their differences aside to work together. The ANC suffered a historic loss, ending the elections with 46% of the vote, followed by the DA with just 21.8%, the EFF with 10.4% and the IFP with 5.7%. Despite Ramaphosa’s pleas, the DA says it will not enter coalitions with the ANC and has previously written off working with the EFF as well. The EFF said it is willing to work with anyone, while the ANC has also expressed interest in entering coalitions will all parties. [ENCA]

• Biggest vote: The biggest vote in the local government elections was the choice not to vote at all, analysts say. Of the 26 million registered voters, only 12 million pitched up to throw their support behind a political party, yielding a turnout of only 46% – the lowest on record in post-94 South Africa. The impact of the great stay-away was acutely felt by the ANC, which saw its numbers drop below 50% for the first time. According to analysts, the stay-away was certainly to the benefit of the DA and other smaller parties, who made gains in former ANC strongholds. This points to the writing on the wall for the ANC’s political majority and sets up a critical and highly contentious national vote in 2024. [News24]

• Vaccines: The latest data from a Discovery Health study on the effectiveness of Covid vaccines in South Africa has shown that the Pfizer doses reduced the risk of being hospitalised or dying from the virus by more than 90%. The study found that people who received both doses of the vaccine had a 92% lower risk of hospitalisation and a 94% lower risk of death from Covid than those who had not been vaccinated. Even a single offered significant protection, of 73% and 79%, respectively. The findings are consistent with international studies assessing the same thing. The local study included more than 1.2 million adults. [BusinessLive]

• Public-private: Questions are starting to arise on how state-owned companies will be run when they are no longer public-owned, as is the case with SAA. There is currently no standing legislation that governs how these companies are supposed to be balanced between private and public interests. The case with SAA is a rare case, where 51% of the airline will be sold off to a consortium in a bid to turn its financial problems around; however, it remains to be seen how these new shareholders will work alongside the government, what government’s role will be in terms of financing and bailing out the company, and how the competition will be protected in the sector. [Moneyweb]

• Markets: The rand gained some ground against the dollar on Thursday, though markets remain fixated on data coming from central banks. Globally, investors have welcomed the decision by the US Federal Reserve’s policy decision. The Fed said that it would begin scaling down its monthly asset purchases by $15 billion from November. South Africa’s vote counting was finalised and showed a significant loss of support for the ruling ANC and smaller losses for the opposition DA in favour of smaller parties in the country. On Friday, the rand was trading at R15.23/$, R17.60/€ and R20.56/£.