By Linda van Tilburg
In today’s global headlines:
- I say global, but news that energy regulator Nersa has granted Eskom a 9.4% increase for 2019/20 overshadows any overseas headlines. Added to that a further 8.10% rise has been approved for 2020/21 and 5.22% in 2021/22. It is less than what Eskom asked for as it only allowed to recover costs to the energy provider. This is not going to add any votes for the ANC as they are dipping in the polls for the May 8 elections. President Cyril Ramaphosa told Parliament he will act on recommendations of the commissions saying he is “extremely serious” and will root out corruption. But the Democratic Alliance would have none of that, it is election season after all, and they need to dent the image of the new broom sweeping through the nation and brought up the issue of Ramaphosa’s son demanding that the President puts a number to the contract his son had with Bosasa. Ramaphosa backed up by the Speaker again sidestepped this saying he had nothing to hide and he has handed all information over to the Public Protector. This is definitely an issue that the DA will latch on to like a pit-bull as they try to lure voters over to their party.
- In a time when the global economy is clearly softening, the European Central Bank has become the first major developed country’s central bank to provide new economic stimulus. This signals a major policy reversal from EBC President Mario Draghi and is a more aggressive response than the market expected. The officials are trying to underpin an economy that has felt the mass protests in France, problems in Germany’s auto industry and the slowdown in Chinese growth. It seems that Draghi is trying to manoeuvre carefully to support European economies without spooking the markets. Markets reacted favourably to the pledge that interest rates will remain unchanged until 2020 but the Euro fell to a four-month low. Meanwhile the Sterling is not picking up its head as British Prime Minister Theresa May is likely to receive another bloody nose in Parliament next week as she tables another vote on her Brexit deal. There is no softening of attitudes by her Brexiteers, Remainers or Europe. Added to that explosive devices have been found in several public places, which is believed to belong to Irish dissidents not happy with the Brexit process. Tick-tock; Official Leave Day is a mere three weeks away.
- From the US comes news that Huawei is going on the offensive to try fight back on a clamp-down by US President Donald Trump on the Chinese tech giant. The company is using American and Canadian courts to pursue its goal. Huawei claims that the US ban on the selling of its equipment to government agencies is unconstitutional. In a similar action, company CFO Meng Wanzhou is filing legal proceedings against the Canadian authorities for arresting her with the possibility of extradition to the US and she is claiming that her constitutional rights were violated. Huawei is facing intense pressure from President Trump who claims that the company’s equipment could be used for sabotage. If the Kaspersky Lab case is anything to go by, Huawei is likely to fail as a similar claim by the cyber security firm against the United States was thrown out.
- Also, staying in those part of the woods, news that South Africa’s favourite belligerent billionaire Elon Musk’s Tesla is updating its charging network, and claims it can now be done in 15 minutes. After rolling out in North America, the technology will reach Europe and Asia-Pacific in the fourth quarter. It comes amid strong competition from Volkswagen, Mercedes Benz, Ford and BMW who are ready to increase their roll-out of electric vehicles. They are also collaborating in establishing 400 charging stations across Europe by the middle of next year.
This has been your Business Flash Briefing, until the next time.
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