5 important things happening in South Africa today

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

• The Reserve Bank has warned that sustained power outages like those seen in March, could lead to 1.1% being wiped from South Africa’s GDP growth, and 125,000 jobs lost. Eskom has been working to prevent load shedding from returning, but expects pressure on the grid as the country heads into winter. [Reuters]

• Non-profit group My Vote Counts has published a report on party funding in South Africa, detailing all confirmed reports of political party funding sources. Legislation has passed in South Africa forcing parties to reveal their sources of funding, but it will not be done in time for the 2019 elections. [My Vote Counts]

• Tiger Brands is gearing up for a court battle as it fights back against a class action lawsuit from those affected by the 218 deaths from 2018’s listeriosis outbreak. The source of the outbreak was traced back to Tiger Brands’ factories, which were shut down for an extensive clean-up last year. [Daily Maverick]

• Standard Bank has joined Nedbank and FirstRand in no longer financing new coal projects in South Africa. The banks have decided to pull funding from projects like Thabametsi or Khanyisa, to focus on ‘green’ energy. [EE]

• South Africa’s rand firmed on Wednesday as an unexpected rise in economic growth in major trading partner China boosted demand for emerging market currencies worldwide. On Thursday the rand was at R13.99 to the dollar, R18.25 to the pound and R15.80 to the euro.