5 important things happening in South Africa today

·7 Dec 2022

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

Growth warning: Despite growing by a surprising 1.6% in Q3, South Africa’s economy faces several headwinds, economists warn, with infrastructure, power, politics and corruption still putting pressure on the country’s long-term growth prospects. According to economists, the latest quarter of growth may not be sustainable, and the pressures are already building for a low print for the fourth quarter – while a looming global recession is unlikely to leave South Africa unscathed. [EWN, BusinessTech]

Transnet makes over a thousand arrests: Transnet has seen a 31% drop in copper cable theft stolen from its rail lines in the last seven months compared to the same period last year. The total number of security incidents also decreased by 20% in that period. Arrests were driven by a collaboration between law enforcement and Transnet’s own drone teams and tasks teams into cable theft hotspots. However, Transnet remains frustrated by the prolonged justice system and is asking for a dedicated court to deal with the matters quickly. [News24]

Germany to fund wind turbine technicians: The Cape Penisula University Technology’s campus will receive funding to build a wind turbine on its campus. The University will receive part of the German development bank KFW’s R180 million grant, which is part of the German government’s commitment to South Africa’s just energy Transition Partnership (JETP). The wind turbine is designed to give students practical experience. Part of the funding will also be used to help reskill workers at Eskom’s Grootvlei power station. [News24]

Worse load shedding: South Africans need to prepare themselves for worse load shedding in the months to come as embattled power utility Eskom gets ready to pull one of its biggest and most reliable generating units offline for maintenance. Eskom pushed load shedding to stage 4 on Wednesday morning. Stage 4 will be implemented from 09h00 until further notice. More breakdowns and the delayed return of generating units to service are the reasons for the further increase. [BusinessTech]

Markets: The rand showed little movement on the surprising GDP print for Q3 2022, as political uncertainty and doubts over president Cyril Ramaphosa’s future continue to dominate market sentiment. Markets are already reflecting the uncertainty, with analysts warning that it is likely to set in on a longer-term basis. On Wednesday (6 December), the rand was trading at R17.47/$, R18.16/€ and R21.04/£. Brent crude is trading at $79.57 a barrel. [Bloomberg]

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