The South African rand strengthened on Wednesday as it responded to downward pressure on the US dollar, influenced by the market’s reaction to former US President Donald Trump’s policies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The rand was trading at 18.37 against the dollar, about 0.5% stronger than its previous close. The dollar fell to three-month lows<\/a> as the US trade war with its partners escalated, trading approximately 1% weaker against a basket of currencies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “As the dollar faces broad-based pressure, the rand and other emerging market currencies have taken advantage,” stated Danny Greeff, co-head of Africa at ETM Analytics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On Thursday (6 March), the rand was trading at R18.29 to the dollar, R23.58 to the pound and R19.75 to the euro. Oil is trading lower at $69.73 a barrel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Here are five other news stories making waves in South Africa today:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Transnet wage negotiations:<\/strong> The two largest unions at Transnet have demanded wage increases five times the rate of inflation, citing a variety of issues facing the working class. As a sign that both parties recognise the high stakes and the strong likelihood of disagreements, the parties signed picketing rules two weeks before the negotiations started on Tuesday. [Business Day<\/a>]<\/p>\n\n\n\n New rules for electricity prices:<\/strong> Minister of Electricity and Energy Kgosientsho Ramokgopa is drafting a new electricity pricing policy that will change the methodology for determining Eskom tariffs. Acting director-general of the Department of Electricity and Energy, Subesh Pillay, said these would be published for comment within the next 30 days. [News24<\/a>]<\/p>\n\n\n\n New corruption tactic: <\/strong>The Johannesburg metro police department recently discovered a troubling trend in bribery practices among its officers. Instead of accepting cash, they were found to be taking bribes through electronic payment methods such as e-wallets. [Times Live<\/a>]<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bad news for new driving licences:<\/strong> Transport Minister Barbara Creecy has initiated legal action to block a contract for new driving licence printing machines due to concerns over the tendering process, putting plans for a new driving licence card on hold indefinitely. [BusinessTech<\/a>]<\/p>\n\n\n\n Cape Town opens power grid:<\/strong> The City of Cape Town has said it will open its grid to more electricity producers following a year-long electricity wheeling pilot project, during which 562 kWh of renewable energy was wheeled. [eNCA<\/a>]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Here are 5 important things happening in South Africa today (6 March 2025).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":795064,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20398],"tags":[18993,853],"class_list":["post-815546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-5-things","tag-5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today","tag-south-africa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/815546","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\/92"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=815546"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/815546\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":815576,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/815546\/revisions\/815576"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/795064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=815546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=815546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=815546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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