{"id":727960,"date":"2023-10-30T07:59:53","date_gmt":"2023-10-30T05:59:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=727960"},"modified":"2023-10-30T07:59:53","modified_gmt":"2023-10-30T05:59:53","slug":"5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-1640","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/727960\/5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-1640\/","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<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Eskom&#8217;s IPP problem:<\/strong>&nbsp;Energy analyst Professor Anton Eberhard says Eskom&#8217;s IPP office is failing. Between 2011 and 2014, the IPP Office ran four auctions that delivered 6 300MW of solar and wind projects. In July 2020, it has so far only secured 150MW of power, which is in the process of being commissioned. According to Eskom&#8217;s figures, it is estimated that SA needs 50 to 60 GW of new wind and solar by 2030. This is a major threat to power availability, said Eberhard. [<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.news24.com\/fin24\/economy\/emergency-power-threatened-as-ipp-office-fails-energy-expert-warns-20231030\" target=\"_blank\">News24<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Job losses:<\/strong> Analysts are warning of further job losses in one of South Africa&#8217;s biggest employment sectors &#8211; mining &#8211; as companies in the industry face significant headwinds from an inconsistent electricity supply, water shortages, and deteriorating logistics preventing them from getting their products to market.\u00a0[<a href=\"https:\/\/dailyinvestor.com\/mining\/35817\/warning-of-further-job-losses-in-south-africas-mining-sector\/\">Daily Investor<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>SOEs a fiscal drag:<\/strong> According to Momentum Investments, the support to state-owned enterprises (SOEs), which has grown sharply since 2017\/18 to 1.5% of GDP in 2023\/24, is likely to remain a significant drag on the fiscus in the coming years. The state has already absorbed R250 billion of Eskom\u2019s debt, while Transnet last week asked Treasury for over R100 billion to get its operations back on track. Economists expect Transnet to get some assistance, albeit with strict conditions in the medium term. [<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.businesslive.co.za\/bd\/economy\/2023-10-29-medium-term-budget-preview-what-keeps-godongwana-up-at-night\/\" target=\"_blank\">Business Day<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>SA&#8217;s Greylisting woes:&nbsp;<\/strong>South Africa looks set to remain on the grey list of a global anti-money laundering watchdog for the next year. The Paris-based watchdog &#8211; The Financial Action Task Force &#8211; said on Friday (27 October) that South Africa needs to do more to improve compliance. [<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.news24.com\/fin24\/economy\/sa-must-show-it-can-prosecute-money-laundering-to-get-off-grey-list-watchdog-warns-20231028\" target=\"_blank\">News24<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Markets:<\/strong>&nbsp;The South African rand strengthened on Friday ahead of the mid-term budget next week, which will provide insight into the health of Africa&#8217;s most industrialised economy. On Monday (30 October), the rand was trading at R18.83 to the dollar, R22.81 to the pound and R19.89 to the euro. Oil is trading at $89.26 a barrel. [<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nasdaq.com\/articles\/south-african-rand-strengthens-mid-term-budget-in-sight\" target=\"_blank\">Nasdaq<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Eskom&#8217;s IPP office is failing its mandate; warning of more job losses in one of SA&#8217;s biggest sectors; SOEs remain a significant drag on the fiscus; and South Africa is likely to stay on the grey list.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":682563,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[853],"class_list":["post-727960","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\/727960","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=727960"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/727960\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":727994,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/727960\/revisions\/727994"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/682563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=727960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=727960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=727960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}