5 important things happening in South Africa today
Here’s what is happening in and affecting South Africa today:
High load shedding stages, long-term benefits: During a meeting on Wednesday, the Cabinet was assured that elevated stages of load-shedding are a temporary measure that will have long-term benefits for the country. Minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni said higher stages of load-shedding are a short-term measure as Eskom prepares for sustained lower stages of load-shedding in the near future. [Daily Investor]
SA greylisting woes: FirstRand CEO Alan Pullinger doubts SA’s will to leave the FATF greylist. “If you stand back and look at it through hard economic eyes, I’m not sure the BRICS construct makes a ton of sense for us,” He said on Thursday. He added he was concerned that SA’s reputation as an investible economy is sliding and pointed out that one of the bloc’s new members, Iran, has been blacklisted by the FATF while another, the UAE, is also on the greylist. [Business Day]
SA solar is booming: South Africa quadrupled its solar panel imports from China in the first half of 2023 to 3.4GW – which, at peak production, amounts to nearly the generation capacity of Eskom’s Duvha or Matla power stations. South Africa recorded the second-biggest increase (438%) or percentage growth in imports after Europe. [News24]
Eskom downgrades load shedding: Power utility Eskom says that an improvement in generation capacity has allowed it to pull back from stage 6 load shedding, with outages downgraded for Friday. Due to the slight improvement in generation capacity and lower demand, stage 5 load shedding will be implemented from 06h00 on Friday (15 September) until further notice, it said. [BusinessTech]
Markets: The South African rand weakened against a firm dollar on Thursday after monthly mining figures showed a drop in production, while analysts had predicted an increase. South Africa’s total mining output fell 3.6% year on year in July after a revised 1.3% increase the previous month, Statistics South Africa data showed. Analysts polled by Reuters had predicted a 0.5% increase in July. On Friday (15 September), the rand was trading at R19.01/USD, R20.24/EUR and R23.62/GBP. Oil is trading at $94.47 a barrel. [Reuters]
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