South Africa’s headline consumer inflation quickened to 5.3% year on year in January from 5.1% in December, data showed on Wednesday. Key contributors to the annual inflation rate included food, housing, utilities and transport. [The Executive Mayor of Nelson Mandela Bay, Gary van Niekerk, held a last-minute meeting of his mayoral committee on February 19th due to the risk of losing R542 million as a result of “severe underspending” of grants.
Although an action plan was understood to have been created during the meeting, no specifics about the plan have been shared publicly. [During a pre-budget media briefing on Wednesday, Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana stated that state-owned logistics company Transnet would need to service its current debt before receiving any bailout funds from the Treasury. Creditors of the company are urging for a bailout, but the likelihood of a bailout is uncertain until the debt is paid of