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Cape Town - A roundup of Monday's top economic and finance reads on Fin24.
New leadership for cash-strapped Denel
Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan has announced the appointment of a new interim board for Denel after meeting with the state-owned defence company.
Speaking in Irene, Gordhan said Denel had a "good reputation in the past [but] sadly that reputation has been lost".
"The changing of the board is the first step we are taking as governance," he said.
Gordhan announced that the new chairperson of the board will be Monhla Hlahla, the former CEO of Acsa and a non-executive director of various South African companies.
Rand spikes on Nene comments about SA’s failing municipalities
The rand's weakening of over 1% to the US dollar just after noon on Monday has economists puzzled.
At least one analyst attributed the spike to a knee-jerk reaction to comments made by Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene on Monday morning.
By 12:53 the local unit was trading 0.85% weaker at R12.13, after hitting an intraday low of R12.15/$.
RMB economist Isaah Mhlanga told Fin24 by phone the one possible reason for the rand's sudden move to R12.15 was "an irrational reaction" to statements made by Nene.
Nene told city managers at a seminar in Johannesburg on Monday that some South African cities are “on the brink of collapse” and “can’t be allowed to fail”, according to a report by Bloomberg.
Cryptocurrencies not safe from SARS
South Africans who own cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum of any of the hundreds of others need to declare gains or losses on their tax returns, according to the SA Revenue Service.
“The onus is on taxpayers to declare all cryptocurrency-related taxable income in the tax year in which it is received or accrued. Failure to do so could result in interest and penalties,” the tax agency has said.
Taxpayers who are uncertain about specific transactions involving cryptocurrencies may seek guidance from the agency.
“Whilst not constituting cash, cryptocurrencies can be valued to ascertain an amount received or accrued as envisaged in the definition of ‘gross income’ in the Act,” said SARS in a note.
US insurance company drops case against Old Mutual
US insurance company Travelers and its subsidiary has dropped a court case against Old Mutual [JSE:OML].
According to a notice to shareholders, issued on Monday morning, Travelers had "withdrawn all of the remedies they were claiming".
Old Mutual has maintained that there was no merit to the case. In a notice issued on March 13, Old Mutual said of the matter: "The Group believes that this action is without merit and it will be resisted accordingly."
Facebook personality quiz compromises SA users’ data
The personal data of about 60 000 South Africans may have been shared with controversial political data firm Cambridge Analytica, after friends of theirs installed a personality quiz app in 2013.
The political consulting firm has links to the 2016 presidential campaign of Donald Trump.
In a media statement, a spokesperson for Facebook said while only 33 South Africans installed the app, data of 59 777 South African users was potentially shared.
The personality quiz app was created in 2013 by Cambridge University Aleksandr Kogan, and was downloaded by about 300 000 people worldwide.
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