Government

5 important things happening in South Africa today

Staff Writer

 ·22 Dec 2023

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

• Christmas lights should stay on: Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa said he was confident that the lights would stay on throughout the festive season, including Christmas Day. Ramokgopa said there had been a significant decline in breakdowns coupled with an improvement in the performance of its generating units, which contributed to the suspension of power cuts. [News24]

• Load shedding in 2023: The country has experienced about 332 days of load shedding – and at higher stages than ever before. Over the 153 days of winter (April 1-August 31), the country endured outages every day, with 55 days spent at a maximum of stage 3; 42 days at stage 4; and 39 days at stage 6. The economy experienced stage 6 levels of load-shedding in one day out of every five. [Business Day]

• Power ships could be dead in the water: Karpowership has won approval from the environment department to proceed with two of its three projects so far, while Eskom asked the National Treasury for permission to sign an electricity purchase agreement with Karpowership. Despite this progress, energy expert Chris Yelland said the deal is far from done and will not reach financial close before the extended deadline, potentially losing grid access rights. [Daily Investor]

• Lawlessness in South Africa: One in three magistrates in South Africa were threatened or harmed due to their work, with some reporting they have experienced such threats “a few times”. This was revealed in the Democratic Governance and Rights Unit (DGRU) at the University of Cape Town’s law faculty’s findings of its second magistrates’ perception survey on their work conditions. [TimesLive]

• Markets: South Africa’s rand was little changed in thin trade on Thursday, ahead of the lull in trading sessions that affects the week between Christmas and New Year. On Friday (22 December), the rand was trading at R18.39 to the dollar, R23.32 to the pound and R20.23 to the euro. Oil is trading at $80.08 a barrel. [Reuters]