5 important things happening in South Africa today

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

• The Reserve Bank’s independence has allowed it to survive political attacks over the last decade, says governor Lesetja Kganyago, who maintains that as soon as institutions lose their independence from government, they are open to being abused for political and personal gain. [Business Day]

• Unit 3 of the Kusile power station has been synchronised with the national grid – one month ahead of schedule. This will provided added relief to the grid, which is under strain and constantly on the verge of load shedding. The unit must still go through months of testing before the full 800MW is available. [IOL]

• The liquidators of VBS bank are suing EFF second-in-command Floyd Shivambu’s brother for R4.2 million for unpaid mortgages and loans. Investigations into the looting of VBS pointed to Shivambu as one of the beneficiaries of the widespread fraud which saw R1.9 billion stolen from depositors. [Times Live]

• The ANC has blamed its PE billboard spelling blunder on human error at one of its service providers, and will correct it. The billboard caused a stir this week for misspelling “together” as “togher” in one of the party’s election slogans. [ENCA]

• South Africa’s rand slipped on Tuesday, as Moody’s warned of risks to the country’s last investment grade credit rating including rising government debt and slow economic growth. On Wednesday the rand was at R14.00 to the dollar, R18.29 to the pound and R15.83 to the euro.