5 important things happening in South Africa today

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

• E-tolls still apply:  The National Treasury says the South African National Roads Agency (Sanral) is still legally allowed to collect toll fees on Gauteng’s freeways. This is until the Gauteng provincial government commits to a plan on how to fund the highway network and use the tolling mechanism to raise the revenue it would need. [News24]

• Soweto bailout: In 2020, Eskom wrote off about R8 billion in overdue debt for Soweto residents, and now President Cyril Ramaphosa has raised the prospect of writing off another R5 billion. This comes after the announcement that South Africa has established a multi-disciplinary revenue committee to address municipal and government debt to Eskom — which currently sits at around R50 billion. [BusinessLive]

• Unaffordable public wages: The government remains firm on its view that the public wage increase that unions are demanding is simply unaffordable for the fiscus, which has led to four unions issuing certificates of non-resolution, effectively allowing workers to embark on a strike that could see nurses, police and other public sector workers stay away from work, disrupting key government services. The government has said that South Africa pays R665 billion in public employee compensation, which is expected to soar to R702 billion by 2025. [Moneyweb]

• De Ruyter’s future: President Cyril Ramaphosa said that Eskom chief executive André de Ruyter’s job is currently under performance assessments, and the state-owned entity’s board will decide whether he stays or goes in due course. This was Ramaphosa’s response to EFF leader Julius Malema’s question in parliament about when De Ruyter would be fired over worsening load-shedding and poor governance over the power utility. [Mail & Gaurdian]

• Markets: South Africa’s rand weakened further against the dollar after the US Federal Reserve signalled that it would not slow down the pace of its interest rate increases. Fed Chair Jerome Powell, speaking at a news conference at the end of a policy meeting, said it was “very premature” to discuss when the Fed might pause its rate increases, sending jitters through the markets. On Friday, the rand was trading at R18.32/$, R17.92/€ and R20.55/£. Brent crude is trading at $96.38 a barrel. [Nasdaq]