{"id":869054,"date":"2026-08-06T07:17:18","date_gmt":"2026-08-06T05:17:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=869054"},"modified":"2026-08-06T07:17:18","modified_gmt":"2026-08-06T05:17:18","slug":"warning-to-solar-panel-users-in-south-africa-and-facebook-under-siege","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/5-things\/869054\/warning-to-solar-panel-users-in-south-africa-and-facebook-under-siege\/","title":{"rendered":"Warning to solar panel users in South Africa, and Facebook under siege"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The rand firmed on Wednesday after a drop in the dollar, driven by reduced demand for the currency in safe-haven countries, as markets hope for an end to the war in Iran.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rand was trading at 16.30 to the dollar on Wednesday, up approximately 0.5% from its previous close.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dollar has seen pressure, following US President Donald Trump saying that his administration had “very good discussions” with Iran.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This has reduced demand for the dollar, which typically holds safe-haven appeal amidst global uncertainty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Emerging market currencies also saw a boost following weaker-than-expected US labour data, which showed a 40,000 increase in jobs for July, below the forecast 70,000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Domestically, South Africa saw its private sector expand for the second month in a row in July, although this growth was slightly weaker than the previous month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another support for the rand was the rise in prices of key South African exports, with gold climbing 3% and platinum rising 0.5%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

South Africa’s benchmark 2035 government bond strengthened, with the yield falling by 5 basis points to 8.31%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Thursday, 06 August, 2026, the rand was trading at R16.34 to the dollar, R21.99 to the pound, and R18.86 to the euro. Gold is trading at $4,262.47 an ounce, while oil prices were at $79.15 a barrel. [Reuters<\/a>]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

5 important things happening in South Africa <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Warning to homeowners with solar panels on their roofs in South Africa:<\/strong> Eskom\u2019s fee waiver for South Africans registering small-scale embedded generation (SSEG) systems, such as rooftop solar, ends on 30 September 2026. [DailyInvestor<\/a>]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Serious allegations against Facebook in South Africa:<\/strong> Fintech company Araxi Holdings alleged that Facebook-owner Meta Platforms engaged in anti-competitive and predatory conduct that led to the collapse of GovChat. [MyBroadband<\/a>]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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397 South African schools suffered prolonged or complete electricity outages:<\/strong> 397 public schools in South Africa experienced prolonged or complete electricity outages over the last two years, according to the Basic Education Minister. [Newsday<\/a>]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The top CEO who gave up a R74 million job to leave South Africa:<\/strong> Former MTN Group chief executive Rob Shuter walked away from one of South Africa\u2019s highest-paying executive jobs to take up a job in the United Kingdom (UK) and be closer to family. [BusinessTech<\/a>]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ramaphosa\u2019s lawyers set to continue presenting arguments in favour of Expropriation Act:<\/strong> The President’s lawyers are currently responding to the arguments made by Afriforum and the DA in court, regarding the controversial Expropriation Act. [EWN<\/a>]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here are 5 important things happening in and affecting South Africa on Thursday, 6 August, 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":131,"featured_media":849100,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"posted","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"2085233938788745262","_sma_facebook_post_id":"191437357620492_2168118464008553","_sma_instagram_post_id":"17940123858297847","_sma_x_attempts":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20398],"tags":[24775,45,16370,8540],"class_list":["post-869054","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-5-things","tag-araxi","tag-facebook","tag-meta","tag-solar"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/869054","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\/131"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=869054"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/869054\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":869061,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/869054\/revisions\/869061"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/849100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=869054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=869054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=869054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}