With just an hour to go before the Covid-19 restrictions were due to expire, the health department announced a new round of limited regulations that will still require the wearing of face masks indoors.
All the Covid-19 restrictions were due to lapse at midnight on Wednesday, but the new regulations now give the health minister the power to decide when mask-wearing will no longer be a necessity.
Health minister Joe Phaahla can determine when Covid-19 restrictions are no longer necessary and adequate to fight the spread of the virus, but he also has the power to reintroduce the restrictions under the new changes.
The change means the Covid-19 rules previously fell under the national state of disaster but will now fall under the Regulations Relating to the Surveillance and the Control of Notifiable Medical Condition, which have been in place since 2017.
In practical terms, the new regulations are nothing original and carry with them a continuation of the status quo.
The mask mandate for indoor public spaces and restrictions on gatherings remains unchanged from what President Cyril Ramaphosa announced a month ago when the national state of disaster was ended.
Meanwhile, on the business front, the office of the auditor general said South African Airways had racked up more than R22 billion in irregular expenditure to date, but the total number is likely to rise with four years’ worth of financial statements still unavailable.
The office was presenting its findings to the standing committee on public accounts (Scopa) at parliament on Wednesday and said it had completed auditing of the 2016/2017 and 2017/2018 financial years thus far.
There are still questions about who will account for SAA’s mismanagement and how the airline will be run when a 51% sale to the Takatso consortium is completed.
The auditor general’s office said the department of public enterprises had been tightly lipped about the Takatso sale and has not revealed any details about the purchase thus far, despite a request from the auditor general’s office to see the terms of the agreement.
The department of public enterprises said it would make the agreement available to the auditor general’s office once the transaction had been finalised.
Meanwhile, the state prosecutor said it was ready to put former SAA board chairperson Dudu Myeni on trial for her “case of defeating the administration of justice for revealing the identity of a protected witness at the state capture commission of inquiry,” reports EWN.
The case came before the Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday, but Myeni was a no show at the courthouse.
An arrest warrant has now been issued for Myeni and if she fails to appear in court on June 14 for the resumption of her trial then the arrest warrant will be activated.
In the markets, “the Fed’s FOMC raised interest rates by 50bps last night, as was expected.
This was the most significant hike in 20 years; however, the Fed dismissed the likelihood of larger hikes going forward and kept to their planned 200bps hiking trajectory for 2022,” comments TreasuryONE.
The Dollar retreated sharply with the Rand leading emerging market currencies as it moved down to the lower R15.40/$ level before closing 2% up at R15.44.
This morning the local unit is trading at R15.51/$ as the Dollar recoups some of its losses.
On the commodity front, gold is up 1% this morning at $1,900, while platinum and palladium are both around 0.7% stronger at $1,000 and $2,270 respectively.
“Europe’s planned banning of all Russian oil imports has boosted the oil price.
Brent is currently trading at $110.80 and WTI at $108.20 ahead of the OPEC+ meeting starting today.”
Here’s a round-up of what we’re reading:
SA Business
One in five SA farmers plans to leave the sector in the next 10 years – study – Fin24
SA is top importer of French champagne in Africa, 1m bottles in 2021 – EWN
Bumper trading on the JSE as foreigners pile in, CEO says – Fin24
Global Business
Bitcoin Adoption by Central African Republic a Concern, IMF Says – Bloomberg
Uber loses $5.9bn as Asia investment values fall – BBC
Bill Gates on Elon Musk feud and Jeffrey Epstein meetings – BBC
Markets
Rand rallies as Fed pushes back on 75-basis-point hike – Business Day
US Fed raises interest rates to tackle inflation – DW
Bank of England set for fresh rate hike as inflation soars – EWN
Tech
Bill Gates says Elon Musk may make Twitter ‘worse’ — but that people should never underestimate him – Business Insider
Twitter Works to Soothe Anxious Staffers Wondering ‘Why Bother?’ – Twitter
Powell Gives Tech a Lift by Taking Larger Hikes off the Table – Bloomberg
