5 important things happening in South Africa today

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

• Eskom has reportedly reinstated two of its top executives after they had been suspended for making suspicious payments of R600 million to Gupta-linked financial advisory firm Trillian. Business Day has reportedly seen signed documents that show senior procurement manager Charles Kalima and former procurement head Edwin Mabelane were handed suspension letters over the Trillian payments on Monday and then told to report back to work on Thursday.

• The Independent Electoral Commission has backed a change to the funding model of political parties in South Africa. IEC deputy chairman, Terry Tselane said that the current arrangement regarding public funding benefitted larger political parties represented in Parliament and provincial legislatures. It excluded smaller parties not represented and also did not include local government.

• The Companies and Intellectual Property Commission has indicated that it will now be actively monitoring KPMG over repeated failures to take action against its directors. If it is dissatisfied, the commission has the power to invoke section 22 of the Act relating to the prohibition of reckless trading.

• South Africa is holding its breath as to what action will be taken against Zimbabwean first-lady Grace Mugabe. It is still not known whether Mugabe – who was reportedly involved in an assault in Sandton last week – will qualify for diplomatic immunity, whether the South African government will decide to prosecute and whether a third-party such as Afriforum’s Gerrie Nel will take on the case.

• South Africa’s rand gave up gains on Thursday as traders booked profits after the currency rallied overnight on diminishing bets of a U.S. interest rate increase and higher gold prices. On Thursday, the rand was trading at R13.27 to the dollar, R17.11 to the pound and R15.57 to the euro.