5 important things happening in South Africa today

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

• Eskom is reportedly set to ask government for a R100 billion debt relief. The group is expected to ask government to take R100 billion of its debt onto its own books, which will give the utility relief and some breathing room to implement its turnaround strategy. The move would add 2% to SA’s debt-to-GDP ratio. [Business Day]

• With parliament adopting the report recommending that the Bill of Rights be changed for the first time in SA’s democracy to allow for land seizures, analysts say the topic of ‘land expropriation without compensation’ will now dominate political parties’ election campaigns in 2019. [Daily Maverick]

• Despite South Africa pulling itself out of recession in the third quarter of this year, economists say the situation in the country is still pretty dismal, and positive quarterly growth comes nowhere near to resolving what is in fact an urgent situation in the country. [Moneyweb]

• Newly appointed NPA head Shamila Batohi says she will not abide factionalism within the country’s prosecutions office, and will take down those who stand in the way of justice. Batohi will formally take up the position in February 2019, where her time at the International Criminal Court has ended. [EWN]

• South Africa’s rand weakened on Tuesday as waning hopes of a swift resolution to the US-China trade war overshadowed news of the economy snapping out of recession in the third quarter and surpassing economists’ expectations. On Wednesday the rand was at R13.85 to the dollar, R17.56 to the pound and R15.68 to the euro.