Calls for Higher Education Minister to be axed, and 16 days of water outages hits today

The rand experienced a slight increase on Friday, recovering from sharp declines the previous day. 

It rose by 0.4% against the dollar, reaching 17.81. This uptick occurred despite heightened tensions within the GNU.

Last week, President Cyril Ramaphosa dismissed the Democratic Alliance (DA) deputy trade minister, a key member of his coalition partner. 

Analysts have cautioned that this ongoing conflict could negatively impact the local currency. 

However, the rand’s improvement coincided with a weakening dollar, which was trading near its lowest level in over three years compared to a basket of other currencies.

On Monday, 30 June, the rand was trading at R17.77 to the dollar, R24.39 to the pound and R20.83 to the euro. Oil was trading slightly lower at $67.63 a barrel.

Here are five other important things happening in and affecting South Africa today:

Calls to axe another minister: SASCO is demanding the removal of Higher Education Minister Nkabane for failing to appoint a NSFAS board and for failing to respond to concerns raised at the start of the year. President Alungile Kamtshe criticised her leadership and attitude, noting that they need a competent leader to protect students’ interests. This comes after the DA also called for Nkabane to be removed. [EWN]

16-day water outage: The next phase of the Rand Water maintenance project starts on Monday, 30 June, and will run until Friday, 18 July, impacting the entire Gauteng province at various times and locations in several municipalities. [BusinessTech]

Nepotism racket at City Power: City Power is under fire for a supposed nepotism racket. Several employees are blood relatives of the CEO, and Unions admitted that their leaders benefited from irregular hiring practices for senior electricians. This comes amid ongoing issues with infrastructure services in Johannesburg’s suburbs that are similar to those in informal settlements. [News24]

Eskom’s plan to mine Bitcoin: Eskom Group CEO Dan Marokane stated that South Africa’s state-owned power utility is exploring opportunities to support Bitcoin mining, artificial intelligence, and data centres for its future growth and viability. [MyBroadband]

DA threatens removing Cyril Ramaphosa: DA’s Federal Council chairperson Helen Zille warned that they are close to removing Cyril Ramaphosa as South Africa’s President. [Daily Investor]