The South African rand remained stable on Tuesday following central bank data that indicated an increase in the country’s foreign reserves last month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The rand was trading at 17.21 against the dollar, representing a decline of approximately 0.2% from Monday’s close. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
South Africa’s net foreign reserves rose to $67.865 billion at the end of September, up from $65.899 billion in August. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Economists at Nedbank had anticipated that the international liquidity position would only increase to $67.5 billion. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meanwhile, the dollar was 0.4% stronger against a basket of currencies, and gold reached a record high as uncertainty surrounding a potential US government shutdown kept traders on high alert. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Domestically, analysts noted that South Africa has struggled to fully capitalise on the commodity boom cycle, but this does not mean it is not positively impacting the currency. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Despite investor concerns regarding the renewal of AGOA, a key US trade initiative with Africa, the rand has remained resilient.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On Wednesday, 8 October, the rand was trading at R17.25 to the dollar, R23.10 to the pound and R20.04 to the Euro. Oil was trading slightly lower at $65.90 a barrel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Here are five important things happening in and affecting South Africa today:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Economic emergency:<\/strong> The African National Congress (ANC) has declared an “economic emergency” and introduced a 10-point plan aimed at reviving growth, creating jobs, and enhancing state capacity. ANC President Cyril Ramaphosa announced the establishment of an \u201cEconomic War Room\u201d in the Presidency to coordinate performance monitoring and publish regular progress scorecards, emphasising a focus on implementation and delivery. [Newsday<\/a><\/strong><\/strong>]<\/p>\n\n\n\n Eskom employees demand pay hike:<\/strong> The biggest union at Eskom is demanding a wage increase of as much as 15% ahead of negotiations that are set to begin. The wage demand, which is more than four times the rate of inflation, follows Eskom\u2019s stabilisation of the power grid after years of record blackouts. Eskom declined to comment on specific pay demands until negotiations officially start, spokeswoman Daphne Mokwena said in a response to questions. [BusinessTech<\/a><\/strong>]<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hope for electricity users:<\/strong>\u00a0Lobby group AfriForum has successfully secured a temporary halt on the R54 billion settlement agreement between Eskom and the energy regulator, Nersa. AfriForum argues that the settlement may be unlawful and unreasonable due to the lack of transparency in the process. [BusinessTech<\/a><\/strong>]<\/p>\n\n\n\n Government employees suspended from Two-pot withdrawals:<\/strong>\u00a0The Government Employees Pension Fund announced that it will temporarily suspend withdrawal applications from the two-pot retirement system from 7 to 21 October for a system update. Members won\u2019t be able to submit new savings withdrawal applications during this period, but all other benefit payments and services will continue as usual. [Mail & Guardian<\/a><\/strong>]<\/p>\n\n\n\n ANC heading towards insolvency:<\/strong> The ANC is facing an insolvency application, which could seriously impact the party ahead of next year’s crucial local government elections. With three bank accounts attached and payments halted to settle an R85-million debt, the party risks losing over R1-billion in public funds from the national fiscus and private donors. [Daily Maverick<\/a><\/strong>]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Here are five important things happening in South Africa on Wednesday, 8 October 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":821300,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20398],"tags":[18993,853],"class_list":["post-839350","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\/839350","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=839350"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839350\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":839353,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839350\/revisions\/839353"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/821300"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=839350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=839350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=839350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n