5 important things happening in South Africa today
·15 Mar 2024
Here’s what is happening in and affecting South Africa today:
- Massive undersea cable outage fix delayed: Microsoft has announced delays in repairing four undersea cables that went offline on Thursday. The company has rerouted traffic to maintain its cloud services in South Africa after an outage near Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, affected several major cables. [MyBroadband]
- Parliament passes consequential electricity legislation: South Africa has recently passed the Electricity Regulation Amendment Bill in the National Assembly. This bill does not permit the privatisation of any part of Eskom – however, it does provide an opportunity for the country to move to a multimarket model for electricity trading, which could potentially transform the power market in South Africa. [Business Day]
- Gauteng’s costly malpractice claims: In just nine months, the Gauteng Health Department has disbursed R623 million to individuals who filed claims for medical negligence or malpractice. Furthermore, it has allocated R597 million to cover fees for private attorneys and state legal services. [News24]
- Recovery of R142 million paid to dead beneficiaries unlikely: Social development minister Lindiwe Zulu says that her department is doubtful whether it will be possible or financially viable to attempt to recover the R142 million paid to deceased beneficiaries of social grants in the years 2021/22 and 2023/24. [Business Day]
- Markets: South Africa’s rand extended its losses against a strong U.S. dollar on Thursday after a mixed batch of local mining and manufacturing data, weakening by around 1.2% compared to the previous close. On Friday (15 March), the rand was trading at R18.78 to the dollar, R23.92 to the pound, and R20.41 to the euro. Oil is trading at $85.25 a barrel. [Reuters]
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