5 important things happening in South Africa today
·11 Dec 2023
Here’s what is happening in and affecting South Africa today:
- Govt accepts load shedding judgement: Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa says the government has accepted a High Court finding that load shedding undermines South Africans’ rights. He added, however, that the government is now seeking legal advice on the “intricacies” of the court-imposed deadline to provide power to public schools and hospitals as well as police stations by the end of January. [News24]
- More police officers: Police Minister Bheki Cele said that the recruitment of 10,000 new police officers are set to formally join the police service from Friday after completing their training in the recruitment programme, with the aim to help improve police visibility over the festive season. [EWN]
- 980MW going offline today: Eskom will take Koeberg’s Unit 2 nuclear reactor offline on Monday, 11 December 2023, for the work required to extend its operating licence – taking out 980MW of generating capacity. Ramokgopa said Eskom learned from its mistakes with Unit 1 and anticipates that the steam generator replacement work for Unit 2 will be completed much faster. [MyBroadband]
- Monopolies are killing South Africa: Pietermaritzburg and Midlands Chamber and Business CEO has said South Africa’s energy and logistics crises are making South African businesses uncompetitive on a global scale and disproportionately affecting smaller businesses as they have aided in above-inflation increases in key cost components such as logistics, electricity, water, wages, and fuel. [Daily Investor]
- Markets: South Africa’s rand weakened against the dollar on Friday after a surge in U.S. payroll gains dampened hopes of an early interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve. On Monday (11 December), the rand was trading at R19.01 to the dollar, R23.84 to the pound and R20.47 to the euro. Oil is trading at $76.33 a barrel. [Reuters]
Loading ...