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Top 5 on Fin24: Jooste to be subpoenaed, Ramaphosa appoints new judge for Moyane hearing

Cape Town - A roundup of Tuesday's top economic and finance reads on Fin24.

Markus Jooste to be subpoenaed to appear before Parliament

A court may need to rule whether disgraced Steinhoff CEO Markus Jooste can testify before Parliament while he is the subject of a criminal investigation. 

This emerged from a meeting of the Standing Committee on Finance on Tuesday, where the issue of a subpoena against Jooste was discussed. The committee on Tuesday resolved to adopt a resolution to subpoena Jooste, the first step in a process to compel him to appear before the committee. 

Following the last Parliamentary hearing into Steinhoff in March, MPs already resolved to subpoena Jooste after he failed to appear to give evidence on matters related to the embattled retailer.

But the fact that he is the subject of an investigation by SA's priority crime investigating unit the Hawks has complicated matters.

H&M to source merchandise locally

Swedish clothing retailer H&M is considering sourcing some of its merchandise from local suppliers, with teams from abroad in the country to assess potential partners, a spokesperson said on Tuesday.

"It is still in [the] very early stages," said Amelia-May Woudstra.

"Our production team managers have started with an assessment of South Africa as a potential sourcing market," she said.

Woudstra would not say which companies H&M was eyeing as potential suppliers.

Poorest and most vulnerable to be shielded from VAT hike - Nene

Minister of Finance Nhlanhla Nene has told Parliament that National Treasury will protect South Africa’s poorest citizens from the impact of the increase in the value-added tax (VAT) rate to 15%.

The announcement of a one percentage point increase to the VAT rate was made by former minister of finance Malusi Gigaba in February.

The hike came into effect on April 1.

Tabling his budget vote for National Treasury on Tuesday, Nene told MPs that the poorest and most vulnerable South Africans would be protected from the brunt of the changes to the VAT rate.

“A panel is reviewing the zero VAT rated products and the impact of the VAT. They will submit a report to me by June and we will work to ensure that the poorest of the poor are not hardest hit by the VAT rate,” he said.

New judge to preside over Moyane’s disciplinary hearing

President Cyril Ramaphosa has appointed advocate Azhar Bham, SC, as the presiding officer into the disciplinary charges against suspended South African Revenue Service commissioner Tom Moyane.

Ramaphosa had initially appointed Judge Kate O’Regan to do the inquiry.

"This follows an objection raised by Mr Moyane regarding the links between Judge Kate O’Regan, who had initially been appointed as the presiding officer, and Corruption Watch, an NGO of which she is a board member," the Presidency said in a statement on Tuesday. 

In related news, Bloomberg looks at the legal cases in which South African officials have been caught up.

Zuckerberg testimony to European Parliament continues

Mark Zuckerberg large

Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg will tout the company’s investment in Europe and again take responsibility for privacy failures, according to testimony prepared for an appearance on Tuesday in front of the region’s parliament.

Zuckerberg, who was asked to address concerns about the Cambridge Analytica data leak, will repeat what he’s been telling every audience recently: That the company didn’t take a broad enough view of its responsibility for user data, fake news and foreign interference in elections.

For that, he’s sorry, the chief executive officer says in excerpts of his remarks released in advance by the company.

But Zuckerberg will also use the time to discuss Facebook’s continued investment in Europe.

He’ll remind them about an artificial intelligence research lab in Paris, a large engineering team in London, and data centres in Sweden, Ireland and Denmark set to open in 2020.

He’ll also highlight how refugees are using the site to communicate with families back in their home countries, and how Europeans used the company’s "safety check" feature to keep tabs on loved ones after terror attacks in Paris, London and Brussels.

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