Business

5 important things happening in South Africa today

Staff Writer

 ·17 Feb 2022

Coronavirus: In South Africa, there have been 3,699 new cases of Covid-19, taking the total reported to 3,648,968. Deaths have reached 97,520 (+89), while recoveries have climbed to 3,513,078, leaving the country with a balance of 38,370 active cases and a recovery rate of 96,3%. A total of 30,779,273 vaccines have been administered.

• Sick leave: Sick leave taken by an unknown number of employees in the eThekwini municipality’s solid waste department in December cost the department more than R725,000 – while it racked up an overtime bill of more than R14 million in the month prior. This was revealed in a performance monitoring report published this week, which pointed to sick leave at the department doubling over the festive season. The DA has written to the head of the department and other high-ups in the municipality to explain the increase in sick leave and the exorbitant overtime payments in November. [TimesLive]

• Terminated: The City of Joburg issued a pre-termination notice to Sandton City for an outstanding municipal bill of R168 million. This follows the City of Joburg’s attempt to recover R38 billion from businesses, residents and government departments in Sandton. The City of Joburg said that if Sandton City does not pay its outstanding bill, its services would be suspended. The City of Joburg and Sandton City has agreed to hold over legal proceedings until the finalisation of the correct valuation of Sandton City’s rates has been determined by the Valuation Appeal Board. [News24]

• Shut down: Students disrupted the University of Cape Town lectures, aiming to shut down the campus over issues surrounding registration and outstanding fee debt. Students disrupted classes and barricaded campus entrances while hundreds of student registrations were still being processed. On Tuesday, in an open letter to the university’s Vice-Chancellor, the UCT Student’s Representative Council (SRC) said that the university had failed to ensure that all students were registered and exhibited a lack of urgency over the matter. The university had agreed to have all students registered by Monday. [Daily Maverick]

• Red tape: President Cyril Ramaphosa is defending his decision to appoint a ‘red-tape team’ – led by the former chief executive officer of Exxaro, Sipho Nkosi – saying it help benefit business and unlock investment in South Africa. In his State of the Nationa Address, Ramaphosa stressed that the government’s task is to create the conditions that will enable the private sector to grow and employ more South Africans. Opposition parties criticised Ramaphosa for further bloating his office by centralising and absorbing more functions, which they said are better suited to established ministries. [eNCA]

• Markets: The rand weakened in afternoon trade on Wednesday as data showed consumer inflation slowing in January, therefore, lowering the expectation of aggressive domestic interest rate hikes. South Africa’s inflation fell to 5,7% year on year in January from 5,9% in December; however, this is still near the upper end of SARB’s target range. The rand is currently trading at R15,01/$, R17,04/€ and R20.39/£. [Nasdaq]