Finance

5 important things happening in South Africa today

Staff Writer

 ·4 Mar 2020

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

Load shedding: No load shedding is planned for today, but Eskom warns that it may have to be implemented at some stage as unplanned outages remain high. The system remains constrained, vulnerable and unpredictable.

• Pension funds for Eskom: President Cyril Ramaphosa has endorsed suggestions that both private and public pensions be used to pay off Eskom’s debt, saying that negotiations on the process are about 80% or 90% done, according to Cosatu. Ramaphosa said he understands the fears, given Eskom’s dismal financial state – but assured that the idea is premised on Eskom being stable and back in investment grade, so “pensions have nothing to fear”. The policy is facing strong pushback from opposition parties and unions like Solidarity. [IOL]

• Stealing power in Soweto: The culture of non-payment for electricity in Soweto is so pervasive, and has been for so long, that young people have been trained for over a decade on how to illegally connect households to Eskom’s power grid – and they continue to do so even today. Former Eskom employees are reportedly behind such training. Eskom said it is aware of the problem, noting that a fine for illegal connections is R6,000. Soweto households say they resort to it because they are unable to pay more than R100 or R150 for power. [TimesLive]

• Back to basic training: The Johannesburg Metro Police Department has sent over 1,000 newly trained police officers back to the academy for further training, after it was found that some were unable to use a weapon, or had fears of being in traffic (while they were supposed to direct it). The department said they are only going back to train in the areas they are deficient in, and that the process will do them good, and will be good for the communities they serve. [Enca]

• Covid evacuation: South Africa’s plan to evacuate citizens from the Wuhan region in China will be executed in 7 to 9 days. Once in South Africa, they will be quarantined at an undisclosed location. South Africa has not had a confirmed case of the virus to date, with the NICD testing 184 people, all coming back negative. Containment measures in China are reportedly bearing some fruit, with a slowdown in new cases, however the spread has picked up elsewhere. Over 90,000 people are infected, with the death toll sitting at 5,328. [M&G, NICD]

• Markets: The rand had a dizzy day on Tuesday, crashing on the news that South Africa had entered into a technical recession, before pulling back after the US Federal Reserve announced rate cuts. The Fed surprised the market with a 50 basis point interest rate cut in an effort to support the US economy as the Covid-19 virus runs rampant.  The move sent shock waves through the market, seeing the dollar lose significant ground while the rand soared to R15.30/$. On Wednesday, the rand was at R15.37 to the dollar, R19.68 to the pound and R17.14 to the euro. [XE]