Business

5 important things happening in South Africa today

Staff Writer

 ·19 Dec 2019

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

• Eskom’s woes continue, with the latest blow being a fire breaking out at its 4000MW Mejuba power plant. While the fire has been extinguished, damage to the conveyor belt feeding coal to the plant has been done. Despite this, Eskom says that no load shedding is planned today. Any power losses will be balanced out by major industries closing for the holiday period, taking demand off the national grid.

• South Africa’s treasury welcomed Fitch’s decision to leave the country’s credit rating at one notch below junk with a negative outlook on Wednesday, saying it would push on with plans to cut spending and contain debt linked to bailouts of state companies. Fitch affirmed both the long-term foreign and local currency debt ratings at BB+. It said that constant emergency bailouts to state companies was a major risk, however, and failing to stabilise the situation could lead to a future downgrade further into junk. [Reuters]

• Despite doubts over the claims of sabotage at Eskom contributing to load shedding, the Hawks have confirmed that a priority case has been opened to find the culprits. President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that the most recent round of load shedding was exacerbated by someone switching off equipment at the Tutuka power station. Energy experts and analysts have cast doubt on this however, saying operational faults and mismanagement were the more likely culprits. [Fin24]

• Former SAA chair Dudu Myeni says that the claims made against her by civil action group Outa have done damage to her reputation – so she wants R8 million and an apology. However, Outa says the legal action is to distract and push back against its delinquency case against her. Myeni has been labelled as the main culprit behind the fall of SAA, with Outa initiating court proceedings to label her a delinquent director. Myeni has consistently applied delaying tactics to avoid her day in court. The case will continue on 2020. [EWN]

• South Africa’s rand rallied to a new four-and-half-month peak on Wednesday as lingering optimism over a US-China trade deal, technical factors and a ratings reprieve from Fitch combined to boost the ailing economy’s currency. On Thursday the rand was at R14.31 to the dollar, R18.73 to the pound and R15.93 to the euro.