Government

5 important things happening in South Africa today

Staff Writer

 ·12 Jul 2022

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

• Ramaphosa to declare emergency: President Cyril Ramaphosa is expected to declare an energy emergency in the coming days as part of a comprehensive set of actions aimed at solving the country’s escalating power outages. The president is also expected to address the nation within days to outline the plan after high-level meetings in the past two weeks. [BusinessDay]

• Top government officials get no load shedding: While South Africa faces load shedding for at least another 10 days, the lights will stay on for those in Bryntirion Estate which is the small suburb where the official residences of the president, his deputy and many ministers are situated. This is despite the fact that regulations make no provision for the exemption of politicians’ homes at any stages of load shedding. [Moneyweb]

• Mandatory vaccinations: Standard Bank is one of South Africa’s first major companies to scrap mandatory vaccinations, with 95% of the group’s employees already vaccinated. The bank said the change will take immediate effect, meaning that it is no longer compulsory for employees to get vaccinated or to produce a negative PCR test when going into the office. [eNCA]

• SARS strike: Unions will resume their labour action against the South African Revenue Service on Tuesday after the parties failed to reach a wage agreement. The Public Servants Association (PSA) and the National Education, Health, and Allied Workers Union (Nehawu) have rejected a proposed 1.39% increase, citing the success of the recent wildcat strike at Eskom. [Fin24]

• Markets: The rand weakened past R17 per dollar on Monday as the South African currency’s resilience is tested by fears of a US recession even as local fundamentals remain supportive. The rand is currently trading at R17.14/$, R17.16/€ and R20.33/£. The price of Brent crude oil today is $105.4/barrel. [Bloomberg]