{"id":871244,"date":"2026-08-21T07:22:02","date_gmt":"2026-08-21T05:22:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=871244"},"modified":"2026-08-21T07:22:02","modified_gmt":"2026-08-21T05:22:02","slug":"former-eskom-employee-arrested-and-businesses-pledge-to-help-joburg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/5-things\/871244\/former-eskom-employee-arrested-and-businesses-pledge-to-help-joburg\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Eskom employee arrested, and businesses pledge to help Joburg"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The rand was flat in early trading on Thursday, as global investors avoided large positions while digesting a surprise move from the U.S. Treasury.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rand was trading at 16.09 against the dollar, largely unchanged from its previous close.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Umkhulu Treasury’s Adam Phillips said he expected the rand to remain range-bound for the rest of the week, adding, “If it can close below 16.1470 on Friday, then it might push stronger.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rand often takes cues from global policy developments, given its risk-sensitive nature, similar to other emerging market currencies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dollar weakened against a basket of currencies after the U.S. Treasury announced it would double its buyback operations for longer-dated government bonds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This comes after a major bond selloff when investors demanded higher interest rates on bonds due to inflation risks from the war in Iran.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ETM Analytics said the move had improved global risk appetite and boosted demand for higher-yielding assets, including South African bonds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

South Africa’s benchmark 2035 government bond was steady in early deals, with the yield falling by half a basis point to 8.465%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Friday, 21 August 2026, the rand was trading at R16.08 to the dollar, R21.94 to the pound, and R18.81 to the euro. Gold is trading at $4,538.12 an ounce, while oil prices were at $93.50 a barrel. [Reuters<\/a>]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

5 important things<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Former Eskom employee convicted for R8.5 million in dodgy tenders:<\/strong> Former Eskom employee Nozipho Ntuli has been convicted for fraud and money laundering following a multi-department investigation into dodgy tenders at the utility, amounting to R8.5 million. [MyBroadband<\/a>]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Business pledges to join Joburg rescue efforts:<\/strong> The business sector has pledged support for Johannesburg’s government amid a deepening governance and service delivery crisis. [BusinessDay<\/a>]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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R400 billion and 600,000 jobs: One company holds South Africa\u2019s economy in the palm of its hands:<\/strong> Sasol\u2019s fixed investment in its South African assets supports 5% of the country\u2019s economic output and 600,000 jobs. [DailyInvestor<\/a>]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Macpherson: Negligent builders must face jail time, not just fines: <\/strong>Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure Dean Macpherson said that negligent construction groups should face more than fines and deregistration. [EWN<\/a>]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Rand gets a major boost from the United States:<\/strong> The rand has experienced another wave of strengthening against the US dollar after minutes from the Federal Open Market Committee meeting put the greenback on edge. [BusinessTech<\/a>]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here are 5 important things happening in and affecting South Africa on Friday, 21 August 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":131,"featured_media":859638,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"failed","_sma_x_autopost_error":"Instagram publishing failed: Instagram returned HTTP 400: Media ID is not available","_sma_x_post_id":"2090671016825528807","_sma_facebook_post_id":"191437357620492_2182280482592351","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20398],"tags":[16632,1164,1996,2240],"class_list":["post-871244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-5-things","tag-5-things","tag-eskom","tag-johannesburg","tag-sasol"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/871244","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=871244"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/871244\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":871249,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/871244\/revisions\/871249"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/859638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=871244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=871244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=871244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}