Flash Briefing: Cape Town Stock Exchange launched; Six NDOH officials suspended; Gupta-fixer granted bail

• The latest South African stock exchange launched today pledging to lure firms from across the continent with listing costs that are a third of that charged by the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. TWK Agri Pty. will be the first company to trade on the Cape Town Stock Exchange, which was previously called 4 Africa Exchange Pty. before an overhaul that resulted in the bourse becoming a full-fledged stock exchange, according to Chief Executive Officer Eugene Booysen. BKV Holdings will list a few weeks later. While a wave of initial public offerings has swept across the world, firms in the continent’s most-industrialised nation, especially smaller companies, have been de-listing from South Africa’s main exchange in recent years due to cost and onerous compliance issues. Cape Town Stock Exchange and other rivals such as A2X and ZarX have been using technology to cut listing costs in a bid to lure business.
• Six South African health department officials who were linked to a corruption scandal will be suspended from their posts on Thursday pending a disciplinary hearing and the formalisation of charges against them, Health Minister Joe Phaahla said. The move follows the release of a report by the nation’s Special Investigating Unit, which found that a R150mn communications contract was irregularly awarded to a company headed by close associates of Zweli Mkhize, who quit as health minister last month. President Cyril Ramaphosa defended the almost three-month delay in releasing the report into the tendering scandal. During a media conference in Johannesburg, he also pushed back against suggestions that he should take immediate action against those implicated in the Digital Vibes scandal, saying the process should be conducted fairly and people given an opportunity to answer accusations against them.
• The Investigating Directorate has said it would be monitoring the movements of alleged Gupta fixer Kuben Moodley who has now been released on bail. Moodley was granted bail of R150,000 by the Palm Ridge Specialised Commercial Crimes Court on Wednesday. He is accused of improperly awarding Transnet contracts to Regiments Capital and Trillian. Moodley was freed just less than 24 hours after he was arrested at OR Tambo International Airport on his way to Dubai. The court released Moodley on the condition that he surrenders his passport to the authorities and reports to the Sandton police station twice a week. Moodley has been linked to money laundering amounting to millions of rands from multimillion-rand contracts.

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