Government

5 important things happening in South Africa today

Staff Writer

 ·19 Oct 2023

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

• Load shedding costs SARS: South African Revenue Service (SARS) Commissioner Edward Kieswetter said they kissed up to R150 billion goodbye because of load-shedding. Load-shedding hampers economic growth and eats into productivity and company profits. This, in turn, affects corporate tax collections. “We estimated last year that revenue lost to load-shedding was about R60 billion but could easily be as high as R150 billion,” Kieswetter said. [Daily Investor]

• Joburg money problems: Johannesburg is facing mounting financial pressures, with the city being owed over R46 billion in rates and taxes. This prompted the city to enlist the services of debt collectors to assist in recovering funds owed. However, despite collecting half a billion rand for the municipality, the City of Johannesburg has told its debt collectors it cannot pay them for the work they have done. [News24]

• Vodacom takes a hit: Vodacom has been found guilty of contravening sections of the Consumer Protection Act (CPA) with its contract cancellation penalty fee, landing a R1 million administrative fine from the National Consumer Tribunal. The NCC found that Vodacom’s conduct was “unethical by imposing terms and conditions that negated the consumers’ right to cancel their fixed-term contracts”. [MyBroadband]

• Win for medical aids: Medical aids have secured a victory in the Constitutional Court that will give them legal certainty that they can continue paying road accident victims’ medical fees and then claim the amounts back from the Road Accident Fund. The apex court dismissed an application from the RAF to overturn a court ruling compelling it to continue this arrangement. It may also hold implications for new proposed laws that specifically want to exclude medical aids from doing so. [BusinessLive]

• Markets: The South African rand fell on Wednesday after September headline consumer inflation rose sharply in Africa’s most industrialised economy. On Thursday (19 October), the rand was trading at R19.03 to the dollar, R23.07 to the pound and R20.04 to the euro. Oil is trading at $91.10 a barrel. [Nasdaq]