{"id":870392,"date":"2026-08-15T07:13:49","date_gmt":"2026-08-15T05:13:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=870392"},"modified":"2026-08-15T07:14:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-15T05:14:11","slug":"end-of-a-60-year-era-for-major-car-brand-in-south-africa-and-vat-hike-changes-still-on-the-cards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/5-things\/870392\/end-of-a-60-year-era-for-major-car-brand-in-south-africa-and-vat-hike-changes-still-on-the-cards\/","title":{"rendered":"End of a 60-year era for major car brand in South Africa, and VAT hike changes still on the cards"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

South Africa’s rand was little changed on Friday as easing US inflation boosted speculation the Federal Reserve would keep rates on hold, while Middle East tensions supported the dollar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rand closed the week trading at R16.20 to the US dollar, weaker than the R16.12 position it had started with on Friday morning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Risk sentiment remained fragile after the United States signalled it could maintain its naval blockade of Iran indefinitely and step up economic pressure on Tehran.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This highlighted the risk of a prolonged Middle East conflict.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The South African currency typically gains when risk appetite is strong, but fears that the US-Iran standoff could disrupt oil supplies and hurt global growth may keep investors cautious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dollar remained range-bound after softer-than-expected US producer prices data reduced expectations for a September Fed rate hike.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nevertheless, the local unit is trading in a much stronger position than previously, with resilience built in from positive local economic fundamentals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, some analysts say this may not last.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The rand is consolidating within a R16.05\/R16.25 range with good two-way flows in the market,” said Andre Cilliers, currency strategist at TreasuryONE. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“From a technical perspective, the local currency is looking slightly overbought, and a correction is possible in the short term.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The stronger rand is currently boosting local fuel price recoveries,<\/strong><\/a> cutting an under-recovery building in petrol and diesel prices for September by around 10 cents per litre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oil prices are still dominating recoveries in the opposite direction, however.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mid-month data from the Central Energy Fund (CEF) shows that petrol prices are in line for a hike of around 70 cents per litre in September. Diesel is sitting with an under-recovery of around R2.80\/l.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oil is trading around $88 a barrel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

5 important things happening in South Africa<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

End of an era:<\/strong> Nissan has officially handed over the keys to its Rosslyn production plant in Pretoria to Chinese automotive giant Chery, marking the end of more than 60 years of manufacturing in South Africa. Nissan has confirmed its commitment to staying in South Africa and selling its models locally, but its manufacturing days are over. [Top Auto<\/a>]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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VAT hike challenge: <\/strong>SARS and the National Treasury want the Constitutional Court to set aside the 2025 High Court ruling that the Finance Minister’s power to unilaterally change the VAT rate without parliamentary approval was unconstitutional and invalid. The minister at the time had attempted to increase VAT to 17% over two years, then to 16% over two years, resulting in two failed budgets. [Business Day<\/a>]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Warning for smart meter users:<\/strong> Eskom is rolling out smart meters to eliminate load reduction in South Africa, and people whose meters show any unusual usage could face hefty fines and disconnection. The power utility said the meters could detect anomalies indicating energy theft, meter tampering, and other irregularities. [MyBroadband<\/a>]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Tide is turning for South Africa: <\/strong>There are positive signs emerging for South Africa\u2019s economy, with growth turning in the right direction and the state\u2019s financial health improving.\u00a0This is despite the significant headwinds posed by the conflict in the Middle East, which has driven oil prices higher and led to elevated inflation.\u00a0[Daily Investor<\/a>]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Zille under fire: <\/strong>Patriotic Alliance leader Gayton McKenzie has sworn that his party will never work with the Democratic Alliance, chiding the party’s mayoral candidate for Joburg, Helen Zille, who he said will never succeed in getting the role. The statement came as a response to Zille speaking on which parties she would and would not work with if she were mayor. [Newsday<\/a>]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here are five important things happening in and affecting South Africa on Saturday, 15 August 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":848832,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"posted","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"2088494417183195299","_sma_facebook_post_id":"191437357620492_2176608679826198","_sma_instagram_post_id":"18140134408577222","_sma_x_attempts":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20398],"tags":[1164,1569,5364,2342,7438],"class_list":["post-870392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-5-things","tag-eskom","tag-helen-zille","tag-nissan","tag-treasury","tag-vat"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870392","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=870392"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870392\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":870393,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870392\/revisions\/870393"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/848832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=870392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=870392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=870392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}