Energy

5 important things happening in South Africa today

Staff Writer

 ·15 Jan 2020

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

• Eskom has suffered more unplanned breakages due to flooding, pushing offline generation back above 13,000MW, however it had enough emergency reserves to avoid load shedding. The group anticipates that the flood challenges will be resolved today, and thus does not expect any load shedding to be implemented on Wednesday. It says it has ample reserves to meet projected demand. [Eskom]

• Eskom and the energy regulator Nersa will meet in court today in a battle over R135 billion Eskom says has been denied to it through what it claims are irrational decisions by the regulator. In three separate claims, Eskom wants the courts to reverse decisions by Nersa to disallow the power utility from recovering the billions owed to it by increasing tariffs. Nersa believes it has acted in-line with its mandate, and instead blames Eskom for ignoring its recommendations to cut costs and stop making poor decisions that make it lose money. [Moneyweb]

• Over 100 police officials and their family members have been found to be conducting business with the South African Police Service, making millions of rands, despite this being illegal. Police minister Bheki Cele revealed the data in parliament, soon after it was revealed that thousands of employees in the Water and Sanitation and Public Works departments were also doing business with the state. None of the officials declared the conflict of interest. [TimesLive]

• Peter Moyo’s legal team has indicated that it will apply for leave to appeal the latest judgement in the ongoing saga against Old Mutual, which ruled that the financial services group did not have to reinstate him as CEO. Moyo’s legal team described it as minor setback, which “will be reversed on appeal” – while the main focus was other cases the former CEO has launched against the company, including a contempt of court case, as well as a delinquency case against its directors. [CNBC Africa]

• The rand is edging weaker and a sustained break above R14.46/$ will open the door for the currency to move a leg weaker towards the next technical level of R14.63. While the US and China are set to sign the phase one trade deal today, the US confirmed last night that all previously imposed tariffs will remain in place until the phase two deal is signed, eroding some of the upbeat sentiment. On Wednesday the rand is at R14.41 to the dollar, R18.77 to the pound and R16.04 to the euro.