5 important things happening in South Africa today

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

• Former president Jacob Zuma pushed hard for the R1 trillion nuclear energy deal to become a reality – despite all the warnings and red flags raised about how unaffordable it was. This was testimony from public enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan. The minister also said that Zuma had an aversion to due process when it came to the deal. [EWN]

• Eskom has doubled its load shedding stages from four to eight, which will allow the power utility to shed up to 8000MW from the grid. It was previously capped at 4000MW. Load shedding has officially re-entered the South African market for the first time since 2016. [Moneyweb]

• Former SABC COO Hlaudi Motsoeneng will have to pay his legal bill after the Constitutional Court threw his appeal out – however, the former executive, who cost the SABC tens of millions because of poor policies, says he is going to take every legal challenge against him all the way to the highest court. [News24]

• Insurer Momentum is facing a court challenge after it refused to pay out R2.4 million to a widow whose husband died protecting her from a hail of bullets. Momentum rejected the claim on the basis that the husband did not disclose a pre-existing condition when signing up for the policy. Its decision was upheld by the ombudsman for long-term insurance. [702]

• South Africa’s rand weakened on Monday, slipping back above a crucial psychological level as higher bets of an interest rate hike by the local central bank later in the week were overshadowed by the simmering US-Chinese trade dispute. On Tuesday the rand was at R14.07 to the dollar, R18.09 to the pound and R16.11 to the euro.