{"id":802753,"date":"2024-12-04T08:06:08","date_gmt":"2024-12-04T06:06:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=802753"},"modified":"2024-12-04T08:06:13","modified_gmt":"2024-12-04T06:06:13","slug":"vodacom-merger-trouble-and-sa-gdp-shock-draws-questions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/5-things\/802753\/vodacom-merger-trouble-and-sa-gdp-shock-draws-questions\/","title":{"rendered":"Vodacom merger trouble, and SA GDP shock draws questions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Here\u2019s what is happening in and affecting South Africa today:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Divide over Vodacom-Maziv merger intervention: <\/strong>In Parliament, the EFF has condemned Minister Parks Tau for supporting an appeal against the Competition Tribunal\u2019s decision to block the Vodacom-Remgro fibre merger, claiming it protects the interests of &#8220;white capitalist elites.&#8221; Tau\u2019s appeal, backed by Vodacom and Remgro, seeks to overturn the tribunal\u2019s October ruling, which blocked the deal involving a 30% stake in Maziv\u2019s fibre assets. While the EFF criticises the move, the DA supports Tau&#8217;s appeal, seeing it as an opportunity for broader reform in South Africa&#8217;s competition policy.&nbsp;[<a href=\"https:\/\/www.businesslive.co.za\/bd\/companies\/telecoms-and-technology\/2024-12-04-parks-taus-support-of-vodacom-maziv-merger-divides-political-parties\/\">Business Day<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Doubts over farm data quality:<\/strong> Statistics SA reported a 0.3% GDP contraction from Q2 to Q3, surprising economists and the SARB. The decline was driven by a nearly 29% drop in the agricultural sector. Excluding agriculture, the economy would have grown by 0.4%, aligning with expectations. This has raised concerns about the accuracy of the agricultural data used in GDP calculations, with Johann Kotz\u00e9, CEO of Agri SA, saying that the figures &#8220;do not make sense.&#8221; While a contraction was expected due to the local drought, Kotz\u00e9 says the scale is wildly out of sync with the sector\u2019s actual experience. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.news24.com\/fin24\/economy\/sas-economy-shrank-or-did-it-doubts-over-farm-data-quality-20241204\">News24<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>NCC investigating expired food sales:<\/strong> The National Consumer Commission (NCC) is investigating 18 companies in KwaZulu-Natal for allegedly selling&nbsp;expired food items. The investigation follows complaints from consumers and a visit last month to a company in Verulam, north of Durban. The company was found to repackage cakes and snacks with expired dates and sell other items without proper labels.&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.citizen.co.za\/news\/south-africa\/courts\/hawks-officer-court-official-court-corruption\/\">[<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sabcnews.com\/sabcnews\/ncc-investigates-18-kzn-companies-over-expired-food-sales\/\">SABC<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Body of illegal miner retrieved:<\/strong>\u00a0Illegal miners occupying an abandoned gold mine in Stilfontein claim that several miners have died from hunger and dehydration. A recent note sent to the surface reported at least six fatalities since the authorities halted food and water deliveries to force them out. In November, law enforcement escalated Operation Vala Umgodi, enlisting mining experts to assist in bringing the miners to the surface. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ewn.co.za\/2024\/12\/04\/after-body-of-illegal-miner-retrieved-stilfontein-zama-zamas-claim-dead-piling-up-underground\">EWN<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Markets:<\/strong> The rand was steady on Tuesday as investors viewed an unexpected contraction in the economy in the third quarter as a temporary blip.&nbsp;On Wednesday (04 December), the rand was trading at R18.14 to the dollar, R22.94 to the pound, and R19.05 to the euro. Oil is trading at $73.82 a barrel. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/africa\/south-african-rand-softer-ahead-q3-gdp-data-2024-12-03\/\">Reuters<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here are 5 important things happening in South Africa today (4 December 2024).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":793391,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20398],"tags":[18993],"class_list":["post-802753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-5-things","tag-5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/802753","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=802753"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/802753\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":802770,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/802753\/revisions\/802770"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/793391"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=802753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=802753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=802753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}