Energy

5 important things happening in South Africa today

Staff Writer

 ·28 Jun 2022

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

• Private power:  Eskom chief executive André de Ruyter says the power utility has no plans to invest in new generation capacity as there are private investors who are willing to do so. While Eskom does have ‘modest plans’ to expand its renewable energy plants, he noted that most of South Africa’s new power developments will be private. [BusinessDay]

• Government intervention: Eskom has put its plans in motion to end protests that have disrupted its operations and break the deadlock at its wage talks – however, unions are pushing for intervention from public enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan. Historically, an intervention from the minister worked in unions’ favour. Following Gordhan’s intervention into the three-year deal Eskom inked with labour in 2018, the utility went from offering a 0% increase to granting 7.5% increase in year one and 7% in the subsequent two years. [News24]

• Lottery boss: The Special Investigating Unit (SIU) has been granted a preservation order on the R25 million luxury home and furniture of former National Lotteries Commission (NLC) board chair Alfred Nevhutanda. Nevhutanda has been accused of unlawfully granting funding to five non-profits, which between them received tens of millions of rands for infrastructure projects. [Moneyweb]

•  Shoprite headache:  Customer data stolen from Shoprite is being auctioned by dark web extortion market RansomHouse, with bidding open at 20 bitcoin (R6.7 million). The retail group stated that some customers’ names and ID numbers were potentially leaked, specifically those who performed money transfers to and within Eswatini, Namibia, and Zambia. [MyBroadband]

• Markets: South Africa’s rand weakened against the dollar and the stock market rose on Monday, as softening inflation expectations prompted a reassessment of the prospects for aggressive interest rate hikes. The rand is currently trading at R15.84/$, R16.75/€ and R19.43/£. [Reuters]