{"id":861870,"date":"2026-05-29T07:27:59","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T05:27:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=861870"},"modified":"2026-05-29T07:27:59","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T05:27:59","slug":"bad-news-for-anyone-who-uses-pick-n-pay-asap-and-r3-2-billion-afrikaans-university-taking-shape","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/5-things\/861870\/bad-news-for-anyone-who-uses-pick-n-pay-asap-and-r3-2-billion-afrikaans-university-taking-shape\/","title":{"rendered":"Bad news for anyone who uses Pick n Pay Asap, and R3.2 billion Afrikaans \u2018university\u2019 taking shape"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

On Thursday afternoon, the rand was slightly stronger after the central bank raised its key interest rate and new data showed a significant April increase in producer inflation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rand traded at 16.32 against the dollar, reflecting an increase of about 0.3% from Wednesday’s closing level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The South African Reserve Bank raised the policy rate by 25 basis points to 7%, marking its first increase in three years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This decision positions South Africa as one of the few emerging markets to tighten its monetary policy during the ongoing Iran war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The central bank stated that this move was necessary to bring inflation back to its target. In April, consumer inflation rose to 4% year over year, while the bank aims for a target of 3%. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Additionally, data released on Thursday indicated that producer inflation also rose sharply last month, hitting 4.8% year-on-year, up from 2.3% in March. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a result, South Africa’s benchmark 2035 government bond was slightly firmer, with the yield falling by 6 basis points to 8.42%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Friday, 29 May, the rand was trading at R16.23 to the dollar, R21.81 to the pound, and R18.89 to the euro. Gold is trading lower at $4,508.81 an ounce, while oil prices were at $92.69 a barrel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

5 important things happening in South Africa today<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Pick n Pay delivery app breached<\/strong>: A threat actor claims to have breached Pick n Pay’s Asap! delivery platform, with private customer data, including full credit card details, reportedly for sale on a dark web forum since 23 March 2026. [MyBroadband<\/a>]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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New R3.2 billion private Afrikaans \u2018university\u2019:<\/strong>\u00a0The R3.2 billion Akademia campus in Pretoria East is under construction and is set to open in 2028, accommodating over 5,000 full-time students. Development began in 2019, with construction officially starting in January 2026, and rapid progress has been made since then. [Daily Investor<\/a>]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Reserve Bank hikes interest rates:<\/strong> The South African Reserve Bank (SARB) has increased interest rates by 25 basis points amid rising consumer prices caused by the conflict in the Middle East. [BusinessTech<\/a>]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Calls for probe into secretary of parliament’s salary:<\/strong> The 70% salary hike for Parliament’s secretary, Xolile George, from R2.4 million to nearly R5 million has sparked calls for a forensic probe from DA and EFF MPs. [Times Live<\/a>]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Eskom to burn coal power stations for longer<\/strong>: South Africa plans to delay the retirement of around 20% of its coal-fired power capacity due to gas projects lagging behind schedule, unlike trends in other developed countries. [Engineering News<\/a>]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here are five important things happening in and affecting South Africa on Friday, 29 May 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":861875,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20398],"tags":[18993,853],"class_list":["post-861870","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\/861870","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=861870"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/861870\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":861877,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/861870\/revisions\/861877"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/861875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=861870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=861870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=861870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}