5 important things happening in South Africa today

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

• New investigations reveal further rot at Eskom, with contractors involved in the Kusile power station build reportedly putting R75 million into an apparent slush fund for use by Eskom officials. The investigation by Scorpio identified that these questionable payments were made by four groups involved with the project, which have contracts with Eskom worth over R10 billion. [Daily Maverick]

• Parliament has slammed SAA for granting employees a 5.9% increase in salaries when it is broke. MPs chided the decision, and criticised unions for making heavy demands on a company that was bankrupt and poorly managed. SAA has only been able to continue operating thanks to R59 billion worth of government bailouts it has received since 1994. The group has not posted a profit since 2011. [EWN]

• Sanral has received 3 bids for the e-toll collection tender, according to Outa – one of which comes from a company that was set up a day after the tender was published. The track record of all three bids has been questioned. The winning bid will be contracted for 6 years, with an option to extend it by one year. The bid value is as high as R11 billion, which could result in wasteful expenditure, depending on what happens to e-tolls. [Moneyweb]

• Contrary to reports from Bloomberg, Remgro says it has no plans to sell its stakes in its fibre networks DFA and Vumatel. However, the group is looking for a potential BEE partner, which would see it dilute its shares. Bloomberg’s sources said that the group was working with advisors to gauge potential interest from investors. [MyBroadband]

• South Africa’s rand steadied in afternoon trade on Tuesday, while stocks fell, as traders awaited further developments in trade negotiations between the United States and China. On Wednesday, the rand was trading at R14.81 to the dollar, R19.04 to the pound and R16.31 to the euro.