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Following the explosion at Bree Street in Johannesburg on Wednesday, Public Works and Infrastructure Minister Sihle Zikalala has called on teams of professionals in the built sector to stand ready to support initiatives led by the Gauteng Premier and City of Johannesburg leadership.

These are the Council for the Built Environment, a DPWI entity to mobilise the sector, professionals, engineers, geologists and other specialists.

Minister Zikalala is the custodian of the built environment.

According to the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure, the mobilisation of the professionals is aimed at restoring normalcy, protecting the public and rebuilding of Infrastructure.

Eyewitnesses and people living near the explosion site have reported a strong smell of gas lingering in the air, long after the explosion.

One person was killed, and 41 others injured in a blast during rush hour that overturned vehicles and destroyed sections of Bree Street and Rissik Street.

Most streets have been cordoned off due to the effects of the blast. – SAnews.gov.za

The South African Reserve Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) has decided to keep the repurchase rate at its current level of 8.25% per year.

Announing the MPC’s decision on the repo rate, Reserve Bank Governor Lesetja Kganyago said three members of the Committee preferred to keep rates on hold and two preferred an increase of 25 basis points.

“At the current repurchase rate level, policy is restrictive, consistent with elevated inflation expectations and the inflation outlook. Serious upside risks to the inflation outlook remain. In light of these risks, the Committee remains vigilant and decisions will continue to be data dependent and sensitive to the balance of risks to the outlook,” Kganyago said on Thursday.

He said while South Africa’s economic conditions appear to have improved, the longer-term outlook mirrors the uncertainty of the global environment.

“Prices for commodity exports continue to weaken. In addition, energy supply remains unreliable and stronger El Nino conditions threaten the agricultural outlook. For 2023, the Bank’s forecast for South Africa’s GDP growth is slightly higher than in May, at 0.4% (from 0.3%).

“Energy and logistical constraints remain binding on the growth outlook, limiting economic activity and increasing costs. From a demand perspective, spending by firms, households, public corporations and general government remains positive in real terms. Disposable income of households continues to grow, albeit slowly. Investment by the private and public sectors is revised up and the terms of trade has remained more beneficial than previously forecast,” Kganyago said.

Debt service costs of households have increased to 8.4% of disposable income, and now sit at around the average for the past decade.

“Although credit growth to households and corporates has slowed in recent months, it has increased in real terms compared to last year. Our GDP growth forecast for 2024 and 2025 is unchanged from the previous meeting, at 1.0% and 1.1%, respectively.

“While households and firms exhibit resilience, economic growth has been volatile for some time and highly sensitive to new shocks. An improvement in logistics and a sustained reduction in load-shedding, or greater energy supply from alternative sources, would significantly increase growth.

“At present, we assess the risks to the medium-term domestic growth outlook to be balanced. Turning to inflation prospects, our current growth forecast leaves the output gap around zero over the next three years, implying little positive or negative pressure on inflation from GDP growth,” he said.

Kganyago said South Africa’s external financing needs are expected to rise due to expansion in the current account deficit.

“Despite somewhat lower oil prices, falling export commodity prices are forecast to result in a current account deficit of 1.9% of GDP this year (down from 2.5%), 2.9% and 3.3% of GDP in 2024 and 2025, respectively.

“Sharply lower tax revenue, higher employee compensation and ongoing financing needs of state-owned enterprises are likely to keep the long-term cost of borrowing elevated. Despite the expected moderation of inflation over the forecast period, long-term bond yields currently trade at about 11.6%,” he said.

He noted that the rand has generally weakened over the past year, depreciating by about 5% year to date against the US dollar, and showing high volatility in response to risk-on and risk-off episodes.

“The trajectory of South Africa’s headline inflation rate has been shaped primarily by fuel, electricity and food price inflation. Compared to the previous meeting, fuel price inflation is lower at -3.1% in 2023 (from -2.0%).

“The electricity price forecast is unchanged at 11.6% this year, 13.4% in 2024, and 10.9% in 2025. Our food price inflation forecast for 2023 remains high but is revised lower in this meeting to 10.3% (from 10.8%), and up slightly to 5.2% in 2024 (from 5.0%),” the Governor said.

He credited better monthly outcomes to a downward revision in the forecast for core inflation to 5.2% in 2023 (previously 5.3%), 4.9% (from 5.0%) and 4.5% (from 4.6%) in 2024 and 2025, respectively.

“Services price inflation in 2023 is expected to come in at 4.8% (down from 4.9%). Core goods inflation, while still elevated, is also revised slightly lower for this year at 6.2% (from 6.3%).

“Growth in average salaries and unit labour costs is lower in 2023 and 2024 and slightly higher in 2025. With core goods and food inflation lower in the near term, headline inflation for 2023 is revised down to 6.0% (from 6.2%). The headline inflation forecast for 2024 also decreases to 5.0%, before stabilising at 4.5% in 2025,” Kganyago said.

Despite recent easing in some food price components, domestic food price inflation is still elevated at 11% in June and the risk of drier weather conditions in coming months has increased.

The Bureau for Economic Research survey released in July shows average inflation expectations of 6.5% for 2023 (from 6.3% in the first quarter).

“Expectations for inflation in 2023 based on market surveys are currently 5.9%, and near-term breakeven rates have decreased to around 4.5%. Longer-term expectations remain elevated,” the Governor said. – SAnews.gov.za

 

 

Those who were injured during or after the explosion that occurred at the Johannesburg CBD on Wednesday evening remain hospitalised in healthcare centres across the city.

This is according to Gauteng Health and Wellness MEC Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko, during a visit to the Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital where most of the patients are receiving care.

The explosion ripped through Bree Street in the CBD and left one person dead and more than 40 others injured.

Nkomo-Ralehoko said at least 11 patients remain hospitalised.

“We have received these patients and they are receiving medical treatment. We want to appreciate that there was a good response from our teams in all the hospitals. We want to thank them…for the good work they have done in making sure that even the critical ones who were referred here are stable now,” she said.

The hospital’s head of trauma Professor Maeyane Moeng gave an update on the wellbeing of the patients.

“From where we are as a hospital…all of [the patients] are stable and are well. We will be preparing to get them the wards moving forward. They might require some intervention later related to the lower limbs. It is good to know that most of our patients are stable and are doing well.

“It is a team approach…if we are not ready for such mass casualty events then we will not be able to help. These things will happen one way or the other for various reasons and the team that was behind us has worked very hard,” he said.

Moeng said healthcare workers have pleaded with citizens to refrain from entering areas where dangerous events such as explosions have occurred.

“When we have such mass events like these and people are requested to vacate from these incidents, can we listen please? When we have an incident like this and we are asking the community to move away and they hold onto the events, if something else happens after that, we are going to have much more casualties than what we’ve seen.

“This is not the only incident that we’ve seen that the communities are not listening to the safety guidelines. Please, as healthcare workers, we are pleading with you, that please when you are asked by those looking after safety and security at these scenes, that’s not a time for pictures, that’s not a time for cameras, that’s a time for safety so that we can evacuate and deal with those that are injured at the scene,” he said.

The hospital’s CEO Gladys Bogoshi, in her capacity as Cluster Head of Facilities in the area assured that hospitals are ready and on high alert should any more incidents related to the explosion were to occur.

“In Johannesburg we’ve got two academic hospitals…Charlotte Maxeke and Chris Hani Baragwanath. They have highly specialised trauma trained doctors. They are not only trauma trained but they are also disaster management trained,” he said. – SAnews.gov.za