{"id":859817,"date":"2026-05-08T07:27:45","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T05:27:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=859817"},"modified":"2026-05-08T07:27:45","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T05:27:45","slug":"south-africa-in-hot-water-and-south-africans-say-goodbye-to-dstv","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/5-things\/859817\/south-africa-in-hot-water-and-south-africans-say-goodbye-to-dstv\/","title":{"rendered":"South Africa in hot water, and South Africans say goodbye to DStv"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The rand strengthened in early trade on Thursday as investors considered the prospects of a U.S.-Iran peace deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is despite the issue of ensuring shipments through the Strait of Hormuz remained unresolved. The rand was trading at 16.3225 against the dollar, up about 0.4% from its previous close. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The US dollar showed little change against a basket of currencies, while oil prices increased by over $1 on Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

US President Donald Trump has consistently highlighted the possibility of an agreement to end the war that began on 28 February, but so far without success. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Wednesday, Iran stated it was reviewing a US peace proposal, which sources indicated would formally end the war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, it would leave unresolved US demands for Iran to suspend its nuclear program and reopen the Strait of Hormuz. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like other risk-sensitive currencies, the rand often responds to global factors in addition to domestic economic data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Friday, South African investors will evaluate foreign reserves data for April, which will provide insights into the health of Africa’s most industrialised economy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, the Top-40 index was up about 0.5% in early trade. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Friday, 8 May, the rand was trading at R16.44 to the dollar, R22.30 to the pound, and R19.29 to the euro. Gold is trading lower at $4,715.61 an ounce, while oil prices were at $101.30 a barrel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

5 important things happening in South Africa today<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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South Africa in hot water:<\/strong>\u00a0Relations between South Africa and Ghana have strained after Ghana raised concerns about xenophobia and attacks on foreigners to the African Union (AU), leading to a defensive response from South Africa’s international relations minister, Ronald Lamola. [TimesLive<\/a>]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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South Africans say goodbye to DStv:\u00a0<\/strong>MultiChoice\u2019s revenue continues to plummet as South Africans cut the cord and move from DStv to competing streaming services like Netflix and YouTube. [MyBroadband<\/a>]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Airlink looking for passengers over deadly virus:<\/strong>\u00a0Airlink has initiated contact tracing and informed the public that a passenger on one of its flights had passed away from Hantavirus. Anyone who was on the flight is advised to contact the health department. [BusinessTech<\/a>]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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FlySafair expends fuel levy:<\/strong>\u00a0South Africa’s largest airline, FlySafair, has extended its ticket surcharge due to rising fuel costs from the Middle East conflict. This surcharge will remain until August, pending a potential ceasefire agreement. [Moneyweb<\/a>]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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D-day for Ramaphosa:<\/strong> The Constitutional Court will deliver a judgment on Friday regarding the EFF’s application about parliament’s refusal to impeach President Ramaphosa over a robbery at his Phala Phala farm. [Business Day<\/a>]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here are five important things happening in and affecting South Africa on Friday, 8 May 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":859818,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20398],"tags":[18993,853],"class_list":["post-859817","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\/859817","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=859817"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/859817\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":859820,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/859817\/revisions\/859820"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/859818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=859817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=859817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=859817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}