5 important things happening in South Africa today
·3 Jan 2024
Here’s what is happening in and affecting South Africa today:
- Illegal social grants: Public service & administration minister Noxolo Kiviet says 5,812 salaried public servants illegally claimed social grants intended for needy citizens – with 33,833 social grants being cancelled after it was discovered that the applicants or beneficiaries had contravened the Social Assistance Act by furnishing false information. [BusinessDay]
- SA’s rising foreign debt: The government’s total foreign debt has amounted to a face value of R601 billion, with total gross debt sitting at 11.4% – edging closer to treasury’s limit of 15%. Much of the loans were transacted rands, however, this is changing, and repayments are becoming increasingly pricier, with the rand weakening over the past 10 and 20 years by 58% and 95%, respectively. [News24]
- Budget cuts impact the building of schools: The Western Cape Education Department says that a R790 million budget cut by the Treasury in June last year has impacted its plans to build 21 new schools in the province. [EWN]
- 4 hour load shedding slots return to Joburg: City Power says that it has resolved the “frequent 2-hour load shedding” issue that emerged as the city’s power utility took over handling outages from Eskom at the end of 2023. To resolve the problem, the utility said that it would be returning to 4-hour blocks of load shedding during higher stages. [BusinessTech]
- Markets: The rand weakened across major currencies as the dollar rose, which is underpinned by a confluence of factors, including elevated U.S. Treasury yields and a cautious turn in risk sentiment that weighed on Wall Street. On Wednesday (3 January), the rand was trading at R18.56 to the dollar, R23.48 to the pound, and R20.34 to the euro. Oil is trading at $75.87 a barrel. [Reuters]
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