The South African rand weakened on Thursday (21 August), as investors looked to the US Federal Reserve’s annual Jackson Hole symposium for clarity on the economic outlook and policy direction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The rand traded weaker at R17.76 against the dollar, 0.5% lower than its previous close.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to market analysts, the rand is currently looking for something to drive its directional momentum, with the symposium not having much of an impact on trade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Neither the symposium nor the minutes of the Fed’s July meeting did much to sway markets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The rand also didn’t move much on the latest inflation data published this week, sticking to a tight range.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On Friday, the rand was trading at R17.74 to the US dollar, R23.76 to the pound and R20.55 to the euro.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On the oil front, oil prices were slightly higher at $67 a barrel, having been trading lower over the past few weeks due to higher supplies and demand concerns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Here are five other important things happening in South Africa today:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
State bank heading for liquidation:<\/strong> The South African Reserve Bank has moved to liquidate the Ditsobotla Primary Savings and Credit Co-operative Bank (DCB). The municipal co-operative bank will be part of hearings at the end of the month to process the SARB’s application. The bank has been in distress for some time, following multiple losses and maladministration that led to non-compliance with regulations. [BusinessLive<\/strong><\/a>]<\/p>\n\n\n\n South Africa’s safety and security crisis:<\/strong> South Africa’s safety and security targets as set out in the National Deveopment Plan have gone far off course, with the country in a veritable crisis. The NDP envisioned a country where everyone felt safe to walk the streets and crime levels subsiding. Instead, South Africa is one of the most dangerous and violent countries in the world, and crime levels have shot up. [Newsday<\/strong><\/a>]<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ramaphosa wants National Dialogue boycotters back:<\/strong> President Cyril Ramaphosa wants to engage with civil foundations who are boycotting the National Dialogue in an attempt to draw them back. The foundations left the costly talk shop over fears that it had been hijacked for political ends, while also raising concerns about the cost and lack of transparency. The dialogue currently carries a cost of around R485 million. [Citizen<\/strong><\/a>]<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kganyago’s message to government:<\/strong> Reserve Bank governor Lesetja Kganyago has told the government that South Africa needs to implement structural and governance reforms at pace to address the country\u2019s lacklustre economic growth and the government\u2019s deteriorating financial health.\u00a0These reforms are needed to address the problems behind South Africa\u2019s poor economic performance over the past decade, when its economy averaged an annual growth rate of 0.8%.\u00a0[Daily Investor<\/strong><\/a>]<\/p>\n\n\n\n Who to thank for no load shedding:<\/strong> Reduced demand due to a surge in privately-generated power is the main reason Eskom has sidestepped load-shedding in 2025, not improvements in electricity generation. That is according to a recent Energy Tracker report compiled by Nedbank Group\u2019s Economic Unit, which included an analysis of Eskom\u2019s energy availability factor (EAF) from 2019 to 2025. [MyBroadband<\/strong><\/a>]<\/p>\n\n\n\n Here are five important things happening in South Africa today, Friday, 23 August 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":818533,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20398],"tags":[1164,12501,3619],"class_list":["post-835733","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-5-things","tag-eskom","tag-ramaphosa","tag-sarb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835733","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=835733"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835733\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":835736,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835733\/revisions\/835736"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/818533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=835733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=835733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=835733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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