On 8 February 2017, parties to the National Economic Development and Labour Council (NEDLAC)[1] signed an agreement on the introduction of a national minimum wage (NMW). The only party that refused to sign the agreement initially was the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU)[2], but it subsequently signed on 2 March 2017.

On Saturday 13 January 2007, the South African president, Thabo Mbeki, stepped up to the podium at a mass rally of African National Congress (ANC) supporters in Witbank, Mpumulanga to deliver the annual January 8 Statement of the ANC National Executive Committee (NEC). Although its purpose was to celebrate the 95th anniversary of the ANC, the event also provided an opportunity for the ANC leadership to project a united front after a year of turmoil within South Africa’s ruling political party.

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In January 2019, as South Africa’s minister of finance, Tito Mboweni, was finalising the country’s 2019 budget, the country’s fiscal position remained on a knife-edge. On the positive side, the expenditure ceiling to which the government had committed itself in the 2018/19 budget remained intact. Nevertheless economic growth predictions remained low, the country’s debt was reaching unsustainable levels and the perilous financial position of some of the country’s state-owned entities (SOEs) was putting the entire fiscus in peril.

In 2010, the officials of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) were reviewing the problems of formalising informal financial systems in developing countries, and specifically addressing the hawala system in Africa. Hawala was a highly popular form of remittance transfer, especially where there were no banks or the banking system failed to offer clients ease of access and competitive costs. However, hawala was open to misuse as a means for both money laundering and the funding of terrorism.

The International Trade Administration Commission of South Africa (ITAC) submitted its recommendation on the South African Poultry Association’s (SAPA) appeal for increased tariffs on 5 August 2013, and on 30 September 2013 the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) announced that SAPA had got its wish for two of the five broiler products under consideration.  Compromise tariffs were introduced for the remaining three products (see table below).  The DTI said that it had sought to take into account the market share of imports of the various broiler products, and the extent to whic

In July 2013,  Siyabulela Tsengiwe – chief commissioner of the International Trade Administration Commission of South Africa (ITAC) – and ITAC commissioners met to make a final determination on a highly contentious customs tariff application.

In August 2006, Dr Richard Friedland, the chief executive officer of Netcare Holdings, which operated the largest private hospital network in South Africa, was looking at the findings of research into the opportunity that medical tourists from Africa presented for the group’s Breast Care Centre of Excellence. Traditional thought was that because poverty was so widespread in Africa, the possibility of attracting medical tourists from Africa to South Africa was minimal.

At the beginning of 2016, South Africa faced what Songezo Zibi, outgoing editor of Business Day, termed a “perfect storm”. President Jacob Zuma’s December 2015 decision to replace finance minister Nhlanhla Nene with David van Rooyen, an African National Congress (ANC) backbencher, had dealt the country its biggest financial blow since the start of democracy in 1994. Nene’s dismissal caused the value of local stocks and bonds to decline by half a trillion rand, according to one estimate, while the currency fell to a record low of R15.39 to the dollar.

In 2014, South Africa experienced its longest and costliest strike ever: a five-month stoppage in the platinum sector that cast doubt on the institutions and culture of the country’s labour relations framework.  After the strike came to an end in late June, the National Economic Development and Labour Council (Nedlac)  convened a meeting to discuss ways of preventing further violent and protracted industrial action. Among the questions confronting delegates at this gathering was whether labour unrest could be addressed by altering the laws and institutions regulating strikes.

In 2007, Jan Potgieter, chief executive of Massdiscounters, a division of Massmart, had steered Game, one of its general merchandise discounters, into investing far more vigorously in Africa. By June 2010, Game had shown significant growth in both turnover and profit, but Potgieter wanted the company’s operations in Africa to become even stronger, in anticipation of the entrance of an international player. Potgieter, therefore, had to find ways to protect Game against new players entering the African market.

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