Business

5 important things happening in South Africa today

Staff Writer

 ·26 Mar 2019

Here’s what is happening in and affecting South Africa today:

• The South African Minerals Council says that Eskom’s above inflation price increase will contribute to the mining industry shedding 90,000 jobs over the next three years. Nersa granted Eskom increases of 9.4%, 8.1% and 5.2% over the next three years. [Reuters]

• Eskom’s sudden suspension of load shedding has raised eyebrows among analysts, particularly after a week of stage 4 outages, where the country was effectively told the utility was in crisis mode. Eskom says its diesel reserves have been replenished and stations are performing better. [ENCA]

• The JSE has shrugged off Naspers’ move to list its arguably most valuable assets offshore, saying it won’t affect liquidity on the bourse back him. Naspers is splitting its valuable e-commerce businesses, including Tencent, and listing them in Amsterdam, under NewCo. [BusinessLive]

• The IEC has given the DA permission to put its own seals on vote boxes after ballots have been cast on election day. This will allow the party to add an additional layer of security to ensure that no votes are tampered with. The IEC said the Electoral Act allows for this. [M&G]

• South Africa’s rand firmed on Monday, gaining alongside other emerging market currencies as concerns over a possible recession in the United States dented the dollar. On Tuesday, the rand was trading at R14.32 to the dollar, R18.89 to the pound and R16.21 to the euro.