Government

5 important things happening in South Africa today

Staff Writer

 ·12 Jan 2023

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

• Soldiers not helping Eskom: Eskom’s head of security Karen Pillay says the deployment of SA National Defence Force (SANDF) troops at power stations in Mpumalanga has done little to deter crime. President Rampahosa deployed the SANDF to Eskom power stations last month to deter crime, but Pillay says that criminal activity is certainly still occurring at power stations where the SANDF is present – despite no official reports of suspected sabotage at any of the power stations. [BusinessDay]

• Loadshedding to damage infrastructure: As Eskom pushed South Africa to indefinite stage 6 load shedding on Wednesday, Tshwane municipality’s electricity infrastructure will suffer greatly. Daryl Johnston, MMC for utilities and regional operations, says the city’s electricity network was never designed to be constantly turned on and off, and could lead to further outages. He also warns that the city will struggle to attend outages as its resources are stretched thin. The City of Johannesburg and Cape Town have also issued alerts regarding infrastructure issues around stage 6 load shedding. [TimesLive, BusinessTech]

• Calls to fire Transnet execs: The mineral council of South Africa (MCSA) – representing South Africa’s biggest mining companies –  has called for prominent Transnet executives to be fired –  including its CEO. The council says it has lost confidence in Transnet’s management to fix its issues, which is having a disastrous effect on the mining sector. MCSA members account for over 50% of Transnet’s total business. [City Press]

• Ramaphosa vs Zuma: The South Gauteng High Court will hear President Cyril Ramphosa’s urgent interdict application against his predecessor Jacob Zuma on Thursday. Zuma has tried to rope Ramaphosa into his case against state prosecutor Billy Downer and News24 journalist Karyn Maughan through private prosecution. However, the president has rejected this, arguing that Zuma does not meet the requirements for private prosecution. [EWN]

• Markets:  The rand has strengthened against the U.S dollar – dropping below  R17.00/$ – as investors wait on U.S consumer data which is due to be released later today. Markets await U.S. inflation data for hints on the path of rates for the year. The Johannesburg Stock Exchange also ended higher – with the Top-40 .JTOPI index and the broader all-share .JALSH index rising 0.77% and 0.67%, respectively. On Thursday (12 January), the rand was trading at R16.92/$, R18.22/€, and R20.58/£. Brent crude is trading at $82.70 a barrel. [Reuters]