5 important things happening in South Africa today

Here’s what is happening in and affecting South Africa today:

• ConCourt hits Home Affairs minister: The Constitutional Court has ordered the Home Affairs Minister and DG to pay 10% and 25%, respectively, of the legal costs out of their own pockets for their “deplorable” and “shambolic” litigation. They had approached the court to revive an earlier order from 2017, which struck down parts of the Immigration Act as unconstitutional. The Act allowed for the detention of illegal immigrants for up to 30 days without judicial oversight.[TimesLive]

• More “ghosts” getting paid by govt: According to documents seen by News24, the R47 billion National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) continues to pay 157,980 “ghost students” R1,650 monthly allowances through the state-funded programme. The massive discrepancy equates to nearly R260.7 million that remains unaccounted for in the monthly disbursement of state funds. [News24]

• Big change to load shedding in JHB: From next week, City Power will manage load shedding in Johannesburg after reaching an agreement with Eskom. City Power will limit load shedding slots to two hours at a time as it takes over the management of power outages from Eskom next week. Currently, Eskom slots are up to four hours. [BusinessTech]

• Extra public holiday announced: President Cyril Ramaphosa has officially announced that South Africa will have the day off on 15 December 2023 to celebrate the World Cup victory of the Springboks. [BusinessTech]

• Markets: The South African rand rose on Monday at the start of a data-heavy week that includes the government’s midterm budget statement on Wednesday. The rand’s appreciation in recent days is surprising given that Godongwana will likely highlight the deterioration of South Africa’s fiscal position, analysts at ETM said. On Tuesday (31 October), the rand was trading at R18.92 to the dollar, R22.97 to the pound and R20.04 to the euro. Oil is trading at $87.81 a barrel. [Reuters]