{"id":872959,"date":"2026-09-01T07:27:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T05:27:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=872959"},"modified":"2026-09-01T07:27:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T05:27:12","slug":"r39500-medical-aid-and-housing-for-afrikaner-refugees-in-the-us-and-up-to-r3-15-per-litre-pain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/5-things\/872959\/r39500-medical-aid-and-housing-for-afrikaner-refugees-in-the-us-and-up-to-r3-15-per-litre-pain\/","title":{"rendered":"R39,500, medical aid, and housing for Afrikaner refugees in the US, and up to R3.15 per litre pain"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The South African rand traded cautiously on Monday morning, impacted by a stronger dollar, rising oil prices, and declining prices for precious metals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Additionally, comments from US Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh indicated that further interest rate hikes might be necessary to control inflation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rand was quoted at 16.1225 against the dollar, losing earlier gains after reaching nearly 15.90 last week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the Jackson Hole symposium on Friday, Warsh stated that the central bank would have “work to do” if inflation did not move convincingly towards its 2% target.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following Warsh’s comments, markets significantly adjusted their expectations regarding a potential US rate hike in September.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This led to gold prices falling to their lowest level in almost two weeks. Like other risk-sensitive currencies, the rand often reacts to global developments, including U.S. economic data and policy signals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ETM Analytics reported that the rand is under pressure due to declining gold and platinum prices\u2014key exports for South Africa\u2014alongside a recovering US dollar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They noted this scenario negatively impacts South Africa’s terms of trade, with rising oil prices and falling precious metal prices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a result, the rand is expected to lose some gains, particularly if tensions in the Persian Gulf escalate this week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, the Top-40 index was down 0.9% in early trade. Additionally, South Africa’s benchmark 2035 government bond weakened, with yields rising by 1.5 basis points to 8.545%. [Reuters<\/a>]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Tuesday, 1 September 2026, the rand was trading at R16.11 to the dollar, R21.82 to the pound, and R18.70 to the euro. Gold is trading at $4,426.28, while oil prices were at $91.45 a barrel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

5 important things happening today<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Afrikaner refugee benefits:\u00a0<\/strong>Afrikaners who go to the United States through the refugee programme enjoy many benefits, including a $2,450 grant (R39.500), housing, medical aid, and job assistance. This information was shared by Milan Devetak, the director of the African Community Centre, in a discussion with Colonel Chris Wyatt. [Newsday<\/a>]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Petrol price pain this week:<\/strong>\u00a0The Department of Petroleum and Mineral Resources has published the official fuel price adjustments that will take effect on Wednesday, 2 September 2026. Petrol and diesel drivers are both feeling pain from Wednesday, with petrol prices increasing by R1.34 per litre and diesel by between R2.94 and R3.15 per litre. [BusinessTech<\/a>]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Eskom sales drop 6.2%, but profit increases 116%:<\/strong>\u00a0Eskom sold 178 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity in its 2026 financial year, a 6.2% decline from 2025 and the lowest since 2000. Despite the drop in sales, revenue increased due to above-inflation tariff hikes, and after-tax profit rose from R14 billion to R30.3 billion. [MyBroadband<\/a>]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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South Africa\u2019s government borrowed R288.8 billion:<\/strong>\u00a0The South African government borrowed R288.8 billion from international financial institutions, but it is still not enough, and it is getting more loans to make ends meet. [Daily Investor<\/a>]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Uber job cuts in South Africa:<\/strong>\u00a0Uber\u2019s decision to shut down its affordable UberX ride option will lead to job losses, as many operators will no longer be able to work on the app. [TopAuto<\/a>]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here are five important things happening in and affecting South Africa on Monday, 1 September 2026. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":872965,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"posted","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"2094658398599946604","_sma_facebook_post_id":"191437357620492_2192561508230915","_sma_instagram_post_id":"18125655280830775","_sma_x_attempts":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20398],"tags":[18993,853],"class_list":["post-872959","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\/872959","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=872959"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/872959\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":872970,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/872959\/revisions\/872970"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/872965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=872959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=872959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=872959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}