News in South Africa 12th April: 1. Sugar tax a success: Three years ago South Africa introduced Africa’s first major tax on sugar-sweetened beverages based on grams of sugar. The tax now stands at about 11% of the price per litre. The impact was assessed in recently published research. It was found that the health […]
Five Newsworthy Things in SA 30th March 2021:
News in South Africa 30th March: 1. Easter infection risks and restrictions: While South Africans are gearing up for tighter lockdown restrictions this coming Easter, 50 of 52 districts in the country are not yet showing any signs of increased rates of infection. Two outliers, in Gauteng and Limpopo, have shown slight increases in infections […]
Five Newsworthy Things in SA 29th March 2021:
News in South Africa 29th March: 1. SA’s Covid vaccine strategy botched: South Africa’s ‘dismally slow’ vaccine acquisition and roll-out means the country will effectively have to rely on natural infection to reach herd immunity, with an estimated 150,000 lives lost to Covid-19 already. This is according to health economist, Professor Alex van den Heever, […]
Five Newsworthy Things in SA 26th March 2021:
News in South Africa 26th March: 1. SAA grounded despite bailouts: SAA’s business rescue process is almost at an end, but despite billions in money forked over by government in bailouts, there is still no real plan to get the restructured airline off the ground. Business rescue practitioners Siviwe Dongwana and Les Matuson notified the […]
Five Newsworthy Things in SA 25th March 2021:
News in South Africa 25th March: 1. Repo rate decision today: The Reserve Bank is expected to make a rates announcement today, with expectations that rates will be held at current levels of 3.5%. Yesterday, CPI inflation for February came in at 2.9% – below the bank’s target zone, and the lowest rate since June […]
Five Newsworthy Things in SA 24th March 2021:
News in South Africa 24th March: 1. Third wave closer than expected: Experts from the Nelson Mandela University in the Eastern Cape have warned that their statistical modelling shows that the third wave of Covid-19 could hit even sooner than expected – now projecting an increase in infections at the end of March and early […]
Five Newsworthy Things in SA 23rd March 2021:
News in South Africa 23rd March: 1. Government vaccine rollout too slow: The private sector is getting impatient with government’s slow rollout of the Covid-19 vaccine, with many attempting – and failing – to secure their own doses for employees and their families, meeting with a lot of red tape. Government has managed to only […]
Five Newsworthy Things in SA 19th March 2021:
News in South Africa 19th March: 1. Third wave could lead to credit downgrade: South Africa’s finance minister said on Thursday that a third wave of the coronavirus could destabilise the government’s efforts to control its finances and avoid a further downgrade of the country’s sovereign rating. Two of the top three rating agencies – […]
Five Newsworthy Things in SA 18th March 2021:
News in South Africa 18th March: 1. Eskom costs keep rising: New research from the CSIR revealed that Eskom produced less electricity in 2020 than it did in 2010, but the cost to produce this electricity has tripled. The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) recently released its annual statistics on power generation in […]
Five Newsworthy Things in SA 17th March 2021:
News in South Africa 17th March: 1. SA’s economy could take 4 years to recover: The South African economy will take three to four years to get back to where it was before the Covid-19 pandemic, according to Absa chief economist and head of research Jeff Gable. This is a very different outlook to the […]
