South Africa’s new budget at risk, and heads could roll at Eskom

The South African rand declined on Friday (7 March) following U.S. President Donald Trump’s announcement that he would cut all federal funding to the country.

However, the dollar weakened after data revealed that the U.S. economy added fewer jobs than anticipated last month.

The rand was trading at 18.21 against the U.S. dollar, approximately 0.3% weaker than its previous close. Earlier on Friday, the rand had fallen by about 1%.

This drop ended a streak of four consecutive daily gains for the local currency, but the rand still appreciated nearly 3% against the dollar since last Friday’s close as markets processed Trump’s tariff policies.

On Monday (10 March), the rand was trading at R18.33 to the dollar, R23.67 to the pound and R19.86 to the euro. Oil is trading lower at $70.03 a barrel.

Here are five other news stories making waves in South Africa today:

Budget at risk: With just 48 hours left before the second attempt to present the Budget in Parliament, the ANC and the DA have yet to reach an agreement on the fiscal framework. There is a strong possibility that the DA will not support the Budget, which could lead to another postponement if the ANC fails to secure backing from other parties, such as the EFF. [News24]

Heads could roll at Eskom: Electricity and Energy Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa expressed disappointment over Eskom’s recent Stage 3 load shedding, stating that there should be consequences for its failures. He plans to resume visits to power stations to address any issues. “where there has to be casualties, there will be casualties,” said Ramokgopa. [Engineering News]

NHI concerns: Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi’s release of the first draft regulations for the National Health Insurance (NHI) Act has faced immediate criticism from stakeholders disappointed that their concerns have not been addressed. [Business Day]

Tax business and the rich: The Institute for Economic Justice (IEJ) has urged the ANC to increase the corporate tax by one percentage point to 28% and introduce a wealth and luxury goods tax alongside a small financial transactions tax, doing away with pension tax benefits, and suspending medical tax credits. [Times Live]

Load shedding suspended: Eskom suspended load shedding one day early on Sunday, with the state-owned entity seeing a recovery of generation capacity and the replenishment of sufficient emergency reserves. [BusinessTech]