Morning Brief – Tuesday, 1 November 2022

Good morning. Here’s what you need to know today:

• Elon Musk has fired Twitter’s nine-person board, which has left him as the only director.
• Rating agency upgrades Eskom’s debt outlook to positive.
• Markus Jooste’s ‘girlfriend’ tried to challenge the SA Reserve Bank only for it to backfire.

Elon Musk has dissolved Twitter’s 9-person board of directors and become its sole director

In his latest move as the new owner of Twitter, the world’s wealthiest person decided to scrap the nine-person board of directors to become the only director of the social network company. Musk became the sole director on October 27 – the day the deal to purchase Twitter was completed – SEC filings show. Musk has not outlined his plans for Twitter since taking over the company, but the New York Times is reporting that he is set to appoint a new board of directors in the coming weeks. (Business Insider)

Moody’s upgrades Eskom debt outlook to positive for first time since start of load-shedding

Rating agency Moody’s has raised its debt outlook for Eskom to positive for the first time since 2007 – before load shedding started. The change from negative to positive comes after finance minister Enoch Godongwana’s medium-term budget last week, which outlined government’s plan to take over more than half of the power utility’s debt. Moody’s said the positive outlook is recognition that steps will be taken to restructure Eskom’s unsustainable capital structure. (MyBroadband)

Despite R150 000 a month, Markus Jooste’s ‘girlfriend’ wanted more. But her legal bid backfired

Former Steinhoff chief executive Markus Jooste’s rumoured girlfriend has had her legal bid to get the SA Reserve Bank to pay more money to her monthly completely backfire. Berdine Odendaal had been receiving a monthly stipend of R150,000 a month from the SARB after it attached her bank accounts and four of her properties in the Val de Vie Estate outside Paarl. Odendaal has argued the money is not enough to cover her legal costs, but the Reserve Bank has now cancelled the agreement and stripped her of her monthly income. (News24, for subscribers)