5 important things happening in South Africa today

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

• Eskom’s municipal headache: South Africa’s municipalities owe Eskom R63 billion, up from R58.5 billion at the end of March and R44.8 billion in 2022. The top 20 defaulting municipalities are now paying less than half of their invoiced amount. This was revealed by acting Eskom CEO Calib Cassim in a presentation before Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Public Enterprises earlier this month. [Daily Investor]

• Post office needs more money: although the South African Post Office (Sapo) has lost R19 billion since 2006, the entity’s business rescue practitioners (BRPs) are confident a bailout of R3.8 billion could give it a fighting chance. This is on top of the R2.4 billion already allocated to the SAPO by the National treasury. [Times Live]

• The future for e-tolls: Gauteng Finance MEC Jacob Mamabolo said a proposal would be submitted to the national government by December 15, outlining plans to pay off the province’s share of the e-toll debt and repurpose the gantries. “The gantries should be switched off and be repurposed and repositioned for security, crime prevention and roads-related law enforcement services,” he said. [Engineering News]

• Load shedding creeps higher: Power utility Eskom has announced that load shedding will be pushed even higher this week, with daytime stage 4 load shedding ramping up to stage 5 before hitting stage 6 at night, as previously announced. [BusinessTech]

• Markets: The South African rand was stable on Tuesday, supported by the conviction among global investors that the U.S. Federal Reserve will not raise interest rates again. On Wednesday (29 November), the rand was trading at R18.56 to the dollar, R23.60 to the pound and R20.42 to the euro. Oil is trading at $81.63 a barrel. [Reuters]