- South Africa will temporarily halt the rollout of AstraZeneca’s vaccine and accelerate its supply of shots from Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer after a trial showed the shot had limited efficacy against a new variant of the virus first identified in the country late last year, says Bloomberg. The South African arm of the trial found that the shot from Astra and the University of Oxford had only 22% efficacy against mild and moderate illness, according to lead researcher Professor Shabir Madhi. Johnson & Johnson said on Monday it was in advanced talks with South Africa about potential additional deals to fight Covid-19 in the country, after the government put the rollout of AstraZeneca’s vaccine on hold, reports Reuters.
- Nedbank has been exposed as a key facilitator of corruption in the Jacob Zuma era. The amaBhungane Centre for Investigative Journalists reports that Nedbank gave at least R95m in commissions to Regiments – a company linked to Zuma associates, the Gupta family. In return, Regiments allegedly helped Nedbank secure business from public entities. These commissions, for complex financial products like interest rate swaps, were rolled into the bank fees.
- Chinese regulators have recently summoned Tesla on quality issues, reports The Wall Street Journal. Tesla was one of the most popular stocks traded last year. Regulators have required the electric car maker to abide by Chinese laws and regulations and strengthen internal management to ensure the quality and safety of its products, the State Administration for Market Regulation said in a statement. Consumers have complained about quality problems including abnormal acceleration, battery fire and issues with its remote update system, the SAMR said. The statement by the Chinese regulator came days after the electric car maker recalled Model X sport-utility vehicles and Model S luxury sedans, both in the US and China.
- Tesla, founded by South Africa born Elon Musk, on Monday said it has invested $1.5bn in bitcoin, and that it may accept the cryptocurrency as payment for its products in the near future, sending the price of bitcoin soaring. Bitcoin is back near $40,000 and cryptocurrency Dogecoin is also up. The Wall Street Journal said Tesla disclosed the bitcoin purchase in its latest annual report filed on Monday, saying members of its board’s audit committee updated Tesla’s investment policy to provide “us with more flexibility to further diversify and maximise returns on our cash that is not required to maintain adequate operating liquidity.” The company is now allowed to invest cash in “digital assets,” gold bullion, gold exchange-traded funds and other assets, according to the report. “We believe our bitcoin holdings are highly liquid,” Tesla said. Founder Elon Musk has shown he is interested in bitcoin. Last month, he changed his Twitter biography to “#bitcoin,” a move that sent prices for it higher. His tweets about Dogecoin, a cryptocurrency that was started in 2013 as a joke, also made that virtual currency much more valuable.
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