South Africa is still paying for Digital Vibes’ lack of doing its job.
Instead of keeping us on our toes on Covid as the communications firm was tasked with and paid R150m to do, it paved the way for misinformation and disinformation that could trip the country’s efforts to beat the virus.
The latest reveal in one of the worst corruption scandals to hit SA shows that when all communications efforts were needed to battle the pandemic, Tahera Mather, the now infamous owner of Digital Vibes, was seemingly more concerned with splurging the firm’s earnings from the health department on luxury goods like Gucci and Smeg appliances. Bank records show that more than half a million rand allocated to keep the nation informed was diverted to renovate her house.
With misinformation fuelling vaccine hesitancy, the country goes into the long weekend with less than a third of our population (16 million people) vaccinated, according to the latest health department statistics.
If the proper job was done from the onset, we would not have missed the opportunity to ride the wave as the third onslaught of infections are dying down.
More worrying, is that despite the corruption being laid bare, the people responsible are still carrying on as if nothing happened.
Meanwhile, the rand firmed to open at R14.77 against the US dollar this morning after weakening to R14.87/$ following the Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell’s statement that the US central bank could begin scaling back asset purchases in November and complete the process by mid-2022. Interest rate hikes would follow that. The statement saw the dollar firm strongly and the recovery in commodity prices stall. The currency’s attention is now on this afternoon’s Reserve Bank MPC decision on interest rates.
Here’s a roundup of the world’s top and most interesting headlines:
SA Business
Mantashe must abandon plans to develop 1,500MW of coal-powered electricity, or face court case, say activists – Daily Maverick
Top South African CEO resigns for move to Australia – BusinessTech
‘Colonialist mentality.’ Fury over UK refusal to recognise vaccinations done in SA, India – Fin24
Global Business
The most successful pivot in history built a $500bn business in just one year – Inc.com
Car makers to take R3.1-trillion hit as chip crisis spirals – Tech Central
Facebook chief technology officer Schroepfer steps down – Bloomberg
Markets
Gold down as Fed hints at faster-than-expected interest rate hikes – Investing.com
Evergrande: Shares in crisis-hit firm jump as debt deadline looms – BBC
Hong Kong leads Asian markets rally as Evergrande fears subside – AFP
Opinion/In-depth
There’s no difference between Zuma in prison or in Nkandla; our lives are not going to change in any meaningful way
– Daily Maverick
The making – and then breaking – of South Africa’s Robben Island Museum – The Conversation
OPINION | Cas Coovadia: We must get rid of our heritage of corruption and crime – News24
Video
SAA takes to the skies after 18 months – ENCA
Uber moves up forecast for first-ever profit – Reuters
Soweto’s power woes: ‘Politics, the law or Eskom won’t help us – what should we do?’ – EWN
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