News in South Africa 8th February: 1. AstraZeneca ineffective against local Covid variant: The roll-out of the AstraZeneca vaccine to South Africa’s health workers has been temporarily halted following results showing low efficacy against the South African variant of the coronavirus. South African health workers will now receive the Johnson & Johnson single dose vaccine […]
News in South Africa 5th February: 1. Future alcohol bans still a possibility: The blanket ban on alcohol sales might be over, but the legal battle between South African Breweries (SAB) and Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma is not. And, according to an affidavit filed by the minister in the […]
News in South Africa 4th February: 1. 3.1 Million vaccines from Covax: South Africa is expected to get another 3.1 million doses of the Coronavirus vaccine in the first half of this year. COVAX has announced that around 2.8-billion jabs from AstraZeneca and 117,000 from Pfizer should be made available to South Africa. That is if the vaccines are […]
News in South Africa 3rd February: 1. Calls for transparency with vaccine tenders: The Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) has sent a letter to the ministers of health and finance calling for open tender processes for the storage and distribution of the Covid-19 vaccine. The committee has requested the two ministers in the letter […]
News in South Africa 2nd February: 1. SA Lockdown measures relaxed: South African lockdown measures have been relaxed as the country records its lowest number of daily infections since the start of December. Ramaphosa announced the country would remain on an adjusted Level 3 with the sale of alcohol, among other things, being permitted. “In fact, […]
News in South Africa 29th January: 1. Eskom to collect R6 billion from customers: Eskom has announced that the price of electricity in South Africa will increase from 1 April 2021. This is as a result of three decisions made by the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa), which Eskom said will bring electricity […]
News in South Africa 28th January: 1. Vaccines due to arrive Monday: South Africa’s first batch of COVID-19 vaccines are set to arrive in the country on Monday. Health Minister Zweli Mkhize made the announcement on Wednesday, saying that work would now begin to vaccinate the country’s more than 1,25 million health workers first. The Serum Institute of […]
News in South Africa 27th January: 1. Eskom debt repayments difficulties: Two recent court rulings have made it much more difficult for Eskom to leave paying municipal customers in the dark when cutting or restricting electricity supply to delinquent municipalities. While this will hinder Eskom’s efforts to collect more than R30 billion in outstanding municipal […]
News in South Africa 26th January: 1. Jobs at risk due to lockdown: Nearly 1.4 million formal and informal jobs are at risk in the South African economy, with the current Covid-19 lockdown alert Level 3 restrictions having a direct impact across at least seven sectors: travel, tourism, entertainment, leisure, manufacturing, agriculture, and services not […]
News in South Africa 22nd January: 1. Repo rate unchanged at 3.5%: The Reserve Bank has decided to keep rates unchanged at 3.5%, in line with the expectations of economists. Governor Lesetja Kganyago made the announcement on Thursday afternoon, following the bank’s Monetary Policy Committee’s (MPC) first meeting for the year this week. Two of […]
