Government

5 important things happening in South Africa today

Staff Writer

 ·30 Aug 2023

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

Load shedding here to stay: Energy expert and University of Johannesburg professor Hartmut Winkler said South Africa’s electricity crisis will be with the country for at least five more years. This is despite recent deals made with Chinese representatives and the promise made by Ramaphosa that the power crisis will be over by 2024. “The electricity crisis is of such a nature that no single individual, no single entity or even another country can just come in and fix it overnight. I still think that we’re going to have power problems for another five years or so, although hopefully not nearly as severe as now,” said Winkler. [Daily Investor]

New electricity policy: Mineral resources minister Gwede Mantashe says that he is aiming to seek Cabinet approval for South Africa’s updated integrated resource plan in September. He has dubbed the document IRP 2023, which will go through a public consultation phase after getting approval. The document will outline the country’s path forward by laying out the planned energy mix to 2030 and beyond. The current IRP (2019) has a strong push for renewables, but Mantashe’s favour of gas, nuclear and ‘clean coal’ is expected to be displayed in the update. [Engineering News]

New public protector: The Ad Hoc Committee to Nominate a Person for Appointment as Public Protector on Tuesday recommended Gcaleka as the next head of the Chapter 9 institution. However, the Democratic Alliance (DA) and the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) have rejected her nomination, questioning her independence, and said she’s not a suitable candidate and has a cloud hanging over her head. [EWN]

Collapsing SOEs: Parliament was briefed on the performance of several state-owned enterprises (SOEs), and every single one lost hundreds of millions of rands. Over the most recent quarter, Transnet’s revenue was 13.8% below budget, SAA lost R182 million, the SAPO lost R367.3 million, Arms manufacturer Denel lost R206 million, and the Land Bank lost R80 million. [Business Day]

Markets: The South African rand gained on Tuesday ahead of a raft of domestic and international data releases due later this week. Analysts struggled to pick out a local driver, saying one factor helping the risk-sensitive rand was a decline in U.S. Treasury yields from the previous week’s highs. On Wednesday (30 August), the rand was trading at R18.51/USD, R20.10/EUR and R23.37/GBP. Oil is trading at $85.75 a barrel. (Reuters)