Energy

5 important things happening in South Africa today

Staff Writer

 ·7 Feb 2022

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

Coronavirus: In South Africa, there have been 1,752 new cases of Covid-19, taking the total reported to 3,623,962. Deaths have reached 95,835 (+18), while recoveries have climbed to 3,480,249, leaving the country with a balance of 47,878 active cases. The total number of vaccines administered is 30,189,745.

• End lockdown: The Department of Health says that calls to end South Africa’s lockdown restrictions are premature, especially given the risk of a fifth wave of Covid-19, which is expected to hit the country in the coming winter months. There have been calls from provincial governments to get rid of the state of emergency and lockdown restrictions – however, the national health department said it would take advice from scientists on the matter. Notably, multiple scientists and health experts have also recommended that the lockdown restrictions be removed and that emphasis be placed on vaccinating people. [EWN]

• Audit mess: South Africa’s government departments and state-owned companies have again left the Auditor General with a mess, unable to audit R2.14 billion worth of contracts due to missing information. 69% of auditees did not comply with legislation in this regard. Only 27% of auditees had a clean audit. Of 15 SOEs that were audited, only one received a clean audit. Irregular expenditure reported in the financial statements increased to R166.85 billion, and high levels of fruitless and wasteful expenditure continue, with 224 auditees losing a total of R1.72 billion in the current year. [Moneyweb]

• Energy mix: Energy minister Gwede Mantashe says there are ‘compelling reasons’ to update South Africa’s integrated resource plan, saying that there is an urgent need to increase gas resources and push for more nuclear energy builds. He also wants to increase the energy sourced from renewables, saying they are currently underestimated. The energy plans were last updated in 2019 after a massive push back against former president Jacob Zuma’s plan to add 9,600MW of nuclear energy to the mix. While Mantashe maintains that this was a bad plan, he insists that around 2,500MW of nuclear energy is still required in South Africa’s energy mix, as well as 1,500MW of new coal projects. [News24]

• Chief justice: The Judicial Service Commission has recommended that Judge Mandisa Maya be appointed as the next chief justice of South Africa. The ball is now in the court of president Cyril Ramaphosa to make a decision based on the recommendation. Should Maya be appointed, it will mark the first time a woman has served as chief justice in the country. Judge Maya has several changes in mind, should she be appointed, including the possible expansion of the ConCourt to handle the increasing number of cases before it. She also sees value in reducing the quorum of sitting judges from 8 to 7 to allow the ConCourt to effectively double its output, as two cases could then be heard at once. [ENCA]

• Markets: The South African rand weakened on Friday, eating into the week’s gains as the US dollar was bolstered by much better-than-expected jobs numbers. The dollar turned positive against a basket of currencies as the US economy created far more jobs than predicted in January, raising the chances of a larger Federal Reserve interest rate hike in March. Earlier in the week, the rand had been supported by dollar weakness, as hawkish comments by the European Central Bank and a rate hike by the Bank of England lifted the euro and the pound. On Monday, the rand was trading at R15.46/$, R17.69/€ and R20.91/£. [Reuters]