5 important things happening in South Africa today

Coronavirus: Global Covid-19 infections have hit 169.1 million confirmed, with the death toll reaching 3.51 million. In South Africa, there have been 4,623 new cases, taking the total reported to 1,645,555. Deaths have reached 56,077 (+102), while recoveries have climbed to 1,546,583 leaving the country with a balance of 42,895 active cases. The total number of vaccines administered is 761,903 (+60,999).

• Error: A simple VAT ‘error’ led Eskom to hand R341 million in contracts to a company that had the more expensive tender bid – resulting in one of the losing bidders to go into liquidation. According to Eskom’s lawyers, the winning bid was recorded with a total price excluding VAT, which made it appear a lot cheaper. Despite admitting to and acknowledging the error, and saying it needs to reassess the tenders, no action has been taken. The winning contracts have not been suspended, with the losing bidder accusing the power utility of dragging its feet so that when the matter ends up before court, it can shrug it all away by saying it is too late into the contract to reverse it. [Moneyweb]

• Incompetent: Even though he has denied any involvement with a R150 million health department communication contract ending up in the hands of his associates, minister Zweli Mkhize failed in his duties by not picking up or noticing that the irregularities were happening, say public policy experts. Mkhize held a press briefing this week to acknowledge that the contract was being investigated and that it was indeed irregular and wasteful spending, but refused to step aside, saying he was not involved. However, experts say that, as minister, Mkhize had ultimate oversight over the contract, and he either knew what was happening, or failed to do his job. Either way, the responsibility rests with him. [EWN]

• Pile on: Jacob Zuma is sitting with a mountain of legal issue. This week the former president pleaded not guilty to all corruption charges against him, marking the point of no return for his decades-long corruption trial; meanwhile, he is also back at the Constitutional Court to appeal a R10 million costs order against him from previous litigation where he tried to block the publishing of the Public Protector’s state capture report. Despite the processes being underway, Zuma’s legal team is pulling out all the stops to delay and frustrate the process – successfully delaying the corruption trial to June, as Zuma seeks the recusal of the state’s main evidence leader, while also asking to be acquitted of all charges. [TimesLive, ENCA, M&G]

• Rogue: Former SARS head Tom Moyane insists that the so-called “SARS rogue unit” did exist, and says every effort was made by Pravin Gordhan to muzzle him and hide the truth from him. Under fire at the state capture commission, Moyane referred to media reports – specifically the Sunday Times expose that was later retracted – as supportive of his views, and denied pushing a political agenda. He said the Rogue Unit narrative was brought to him, not started by him. However, the commission’s evidence leaders presented Moyane with his own words about ‘neutralising’ targets, and the court rulings against him and the Public Protector, saying the unit was lawful. Moyane said it these were unfortunate, but conceded nothing. [News24 – paywall]

• Markets: The rand made further gains on Wednesday, thanks to a softer dollar and local markets still riding the wave of the positive outlook delivered by the Reserve Bank last week. Other beneficial factors include rising commodity prices, and a recovering JSE. Should the rand’s strength continue to hold, fuel prices in June could be coming down – at least for petrol drivers. Current data from the CEF points to a 10 cents per litre drop for 93 and 95 petrol, while diesel looks like it will be increasing by 20 cents per litre. On Thursday the rand was at R13.76/$, R16.78/€ and R19.43/£.