5 important things happening in South Africa today
Here’s what is happening in and affecting South Africa today:
Cost of load shedding: Electricity minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa says load-shedding is expected to cost the economy about R400 billion more this year than in 2022 and wipe out R77 billion in tax revenue – equal to about 5% of the total tax revenue in 2021/22. In addition, he said job losses due to persistent electricity cuts could amount to about 860,000 in 2023. [Business Day]
Cape Town in trouble: The Cape Town taxi strikes are now taking a toll on the province’s economy. Premier Alan Winde noted that teachers, healthcare workers, and social service workers have been absent from their duties, while tourism (a big contributor to the WP GDP) is expected to take a knock as the UK sent out a travel warning to its citizens which has resulted in fewer bookings. Cape Town has now been granted an urgent interdict against the taxi council, which prohibits any person or vehicle from unreasonably blocking Cape Town’s roads with the intention of harming or delaying passengers using other modes of transport. [EWN]
Major outage hits Gauteng: Parts of Gauteng supplied directly by Eskom were hit by massive power outages on Monday. The affected areas were Centurion, Krugersdorp, Muldersdrift, Roodepoort and Lanseria. Eskom announced on social media it had a major shutdown at seven of its substations. The outage started at around 20h00 on Monday evening, and the utility said an estimated time of restoration is not [yet] available.” [TimesLive]
Zuma’s fate: The Department of correctional services said it would announce its decision as to whether former president Jacob Zuma needs to serve any remaining time of his prison sentence for contempt of court by the end of this week. “Commissioner Thobakgale is to make his decision on or before 10 August 2023, and it will be communicated publicly,” the department said. [Mail & Guardian]
Markets: The South African rand fell on Monday as global markets were in a cautious mood after a mixed U.S. jobs report and ahead of U.S. and Chinese inflation figures later this week. Casey Delport, an investment analyst at Anchor Capital, said it was difficult to pinpoint exactly what had caused markets to shift to a risk-off footing but persisted the rand would remain on the defensive. On Tuesday (8 August), the rand was at R18.78 /USD, R20.65 /EUR and R23.97 /GBP. Oil is higher, trading at $85.40 a barrel. (Reuters)
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