{"id":729829,"date":"2023-11-08T07:42:43","date_gmt":"2023-11-08T05:42:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=729829"},"modified":"2023-11-08T07:42:43","modified_gmt":"2023-11-08T05:42:43","slug":"5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-1647","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/729829\/5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-1647\/","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>Ramokgopa wants more power:<\/strong> Ramokgopa not being the shareholder representative at Eskom has seemingly remained an issue in dealing with the power crisis. ANC&#8217;s national working committee (NWC) remains unhappy with Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan and is concerned that the Eskom board and Ramokgopa are not on the same page. The NWC has recommended that the party\u2019s officials look into Ramokgopa&#8217;s request for more powers. [<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/ewn.co.za\/2023\/11\/07\/anc-nwc-recommends-officials-look-into-ramokgopa-s-request-for-more-powers\" target=\"_blank\">EWN<\/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>Transnet under pressure:<\/strong> The Public Investment Corporation (PIC) has agreed to roll over R4.4 billion of Transnet debt which is due for repayment on Monday, giving only four months&#8217; grace as the repayment falls due again on 8 March 2024. &#8220;Transnet issued four-month commercial paper yesterday at a yield of 11.3%, which is 2.5% above government Treasury bills of a similar tenor. It looks like it has been extended to just beyond the February 2024 budget, where some decisions will likely need to be made on Transnet&#8217;s future,&#8221;&nbsp;said Ninety One. [<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.news24.com\/fin24\/companies\/pic-rolls-over-for-transnet-but-not-very-far-20231108\" 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>&nbsp;<strong>Load shedding cap:<\/strong> Acting group chief executive Calib Cassim told parliament\u2019s watchdog standing committee on public accounts (Scopa) on Tuesday (7 November) that Eskom is committed to capping load-shedding at stage four throughout this summer. \u201cWe are quite convinced that stage four load-shedding is the peak that we want to reach in the summer period. Obviously, we want it as low as possible and, more importantly, from our economic growth perspective, not to load-shed during the day, and it is just evening peaks,\u201d he said. [<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/mg.co.za\/news\/2023-11-07-calib-cassim-eskom-aims-to-cap-load-shedding-at-stage-four\/\" target=\"_blank\">Mail &amp; Guardian<\/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>Koeberg delays:<\/strong> The synchronisation of Koeberg&#8217;s Unit 1 generator has been delayed as it has yet to be fully synchronised to the grid. Eskom had previously said the generating unit would be synchronised to the grid by the end of October. \u201cThe new steam generators are already successfully performing their role,\u201d Eskom told MyBroadband. The delays currently being experienced are associated with the normal start-up of the Unit and not the steam generators.\u201d it added. [<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/energy\/514173-koeberg-return-faces-another-delay.html\" target=\"_blank\">MyBroadband<\/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> South Africa&#8217;s rand continued to give back some of last week&#8217;s gains on Tuesday. The South African currency, susceptible to changes in global factors, rallied last week on hopes the U.S. Federal Reserve has reached the end of its policy tightening cycle following a pause in interest rate hikes. &#8220;Then the Australian central bank hiked their rates with 25 basis points this morning &#8211; surprising all those that believed in this newfound optimism,&#8221; said Gryphon Asset Management. On Wednesday (8 November), the rand was trading at R18.36 to the dollar, R22.55 to the pound and R19.63 to the euro. Oil is trading at $81.61 a barrel. [<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nasdaq.com\/articles\/south-african-rand-slips-against-stronger-dollar-shares-plunge\" target=\"_blank\">Nasdaq<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ramokgopa wants more power to tackle load shedding; Transnet is in desperate need of a February bailout; Acting Eskom CEO wants to cap load shedding; and Koeberg is hit with delays.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":681859,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[853],"class_list":["post-729829","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\/729829","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=729829"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/729829\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":729843,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/729829\/revisions\/729843"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/681859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=729829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=729829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=729829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}