5 important things happening in South Africa right now
·3 Feb 2016
Need to catch up on the biggest news stories of the day? Here’s the BusinessTech wrap.
- The Democratic Alliance has rejected a proposal from President Jacob Zuma to establish a task team to determine the amount of money he will pay back in the ongoing Nkandla saga. The party said that Zuma offering to pay back the money now – so close to the elections – was “laughable”, and that they would meet him in court over the matter.
- Meanwhile, Treasury has accused Western Cape premier Helen Zille of leaking “confidential” budget information through her newsletter. Zille spilled the beans that Treasurey had no more money to give provinces, and that the upcoming 24 February budget speech would cut the provincial budgets substantially across the board.
- SARS is chasing after EFF leader Julius Malema for R20 million which it says is owed in tax by the outspoken politician. Malema went to the High Court to bind a previous agreement between him and SARS to pay back only part of of the amount owed, but the revenue service says that Malema has failed to meet the agreement’s terms, and must now pay the full amount.
- Eskom CEO Brian Molefe has assured South Africans that there would be no load shedding for the rest of summer and going into winter. The full schedule of rolling blackouts hasn’t been implemented in the country since August 2015, except for once instance that lasted two and half hours.
- The World Bank says that South Africa is “flirting with recession” as it faces challenges from weaker commodity prices, lower Chinese demand and rising US interest rates. These already difficult headwinds are further compounded by domestic factors including policy uncertainty, infrastructure gaps and drought. The group cut the country’s growth prospects from 1.1% to 0.8% – even lower than the IMF’s 0.9% projection.
In case you missed it: An amendment to the Children’s Act may be tabled in 2016 making it illegal to discipline your child through physical means. The Human Rights Commission has appealed to the government to fully abolish corporal punishment in all its forms in South Africa.
Loading ...