{"id":714582,"date":"2023-08-30T08:18:52","date_gmt":"2023-08-30T06:18:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=714582"},"modified":"2023-08-30T08:19:46","modified_gmt":"2023-08-30T06:19:46","slug":"5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-1599-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/714582\/5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-1599-2\/","title":{"rendered":"5 important things happening in South Africa today"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Here\u2019s what is happening in and affecting South Africa today:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Load shedding here to stay:<\/strong>&nbsp;Energy expert and University of Johannesburg professor Hartmut Winkler said South Africa\u2019s electricity crisis will be with the country for at least five more years. This is despite recent deals made with Chinese representatives and the promise made by Ramaphosa that the power crisis will be over by 2024. \u201cThe electricity crisis is of such a nature that no single individual, no single entity or even another country can just come in and fix it overnight. I still think that we\u2019re going to have power problems for another five years or so, although hopefully not nearly as severe as now,&#8221; said Winkler. [<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/dailyinvestor.com\/energy\/29199\/load-shedding-for-another-5-years\/\" target=\"_blank\">Daily Investor<\/a>]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>New electricity policy:<\/strong> Mineral resources minister Gwede Mantashe says that he is aiming to seek Cabinet approval for South Africa&#8217;s updated integrated resource plan in September. He has dubbed the document IRP 2023, which will go through a public consultation phase after getting approval. The document will outline the country&#8217;s path forward by laying out the planned energy mix to 2030 and beyond. The current IRP (2019) has a strong push for renewables, but Mantashe&#8217;s favour of gas, nuclear and &#8216;clean coal&#8217; is expected to be displayed in the update. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.engineeringnews.co.za\/article\/mantashe-aiming-to-secure-cabinet-approval-for-irp-2023-in-sept-2023-08-29\">Engineering News<\/a>]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>New public protector:<\/strong>&nbsp;The Ad Hoc Committee to Nominate a Person for Appointment as Public Protector on Tuesday recommended Gcaleka as the next head of the Chapter 9 institution. However, the Democratic Alliance (DA) and the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) have rejected her nomination, questioning her independence, and said she\u2019s not a suitable candidate and has a cloud hanging over her head. [<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/ewn.co.za\/2023\/08\/30\/da-eff-reject-kholeka-gcaleka-s-nomination-as-the-next-public-protector\" target=\"_blank\">EWN<\/a>]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Collapsing SOEs:<\/strong>&nbsp;Parliament was briefed on the performance of several state-owned enterprises (SOEs), and every single one lost hundreds of millions of rands. Over the most recent quarter, Transnet&#8217;s revenue was 13.8% below budget, SAA lost R182 million, the SAPO lost R367.3 million, Arms manufacturer Denel lost R206 million, and the Land Bank lost R80 million. [<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.businesslive.co.za\/bd\/national\/2023-08-29-transnet-fails-to-meet-first-quarter-budget\/\" target=\"_blank\">Business Day<\/a>]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Markets<\/strong>: The South African rand gained on Tuesday ahead of a raft of domestic and international data releases due later this week. Analysts struggled to pick out a local driver, saying one factor helping the risk-sensitive rand was a decline in U.S. Treasury yields from the previous week&#8217;s highs. On Wednesday (30 August), the rand was trading at R18.51\/USD, R20.10\/EUR and R23.37\/GBP. Oil is trading at $85.75 a barrel. (<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/africa\/south-african-rand-gains-before-data-heavy-end-week-2023-08-29\/\" target=\"_blank\">Reuters<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Energy experts say load shedding is here to stay despite the many promises being made; South Africa&#8217;s new energy mix guide is coming; Some parties are not happy with the new public protector candidate; and all SOEs that reported first-quarter results lost millions of rands.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":651107,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[853],"class_list":["post-714582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-south-africa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714582","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=714582"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714582\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":714604,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714582\/revisions\/714604"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/651107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=714582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=714582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=714582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}