5 important things happening in South Africa today

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

• Support for NHI: A new survey shows that 60% of the participants either “strongly” or “somewhat” agreed that healthcare should be nationalised, with the rest opposing the plan. The survey shows that more than 71% of ANC voters strongly agreed with the nationalisation of healthcare compared to the DA (33%) and EFF (57%). Looking at levels of education, only 40% of university graduates and those with a matric strongly agreed with healthcare nationalisation. Among those with only a primary school education, 72% supported the idea. [News24]

• Legal cannabis a step closer: On Tuesday (14 November), the National Assembly adopted the Cannabis for Private Purposes Bill, which has been in the pipeline since 2018. The ANC, DA, IFP, EFF, NFP and PAC supported the bill, which will now be transferred to the National Council of Provinces for concurrence, while the FF+ and the ACDP opposed it. Neither the commercialisation of cannabis nor its medicinal use is provided for in the bill. Other legislation will be required for this. [Business Day]

• Ramokgopa set to get more power: The African National Congress (ANC) says Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa’s request to be granted more powers when it comes to Eskom is as good as done. President Ramaphosa, having been placed under pressure by his own party, is apparently moving with haste to resolve Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa’s powers dilemma. [EWN]

• Load shedding edges higher: Due to delays in returning the units back to service and the need to conserve emergency reserves, Power utility Eskom says that load shedding will now vary between Stages 2 and 3 for the rest of the week. [BusinessTech]

• Markets: The South African rand leapt over 2% on Tuesday as the dollar slumped after softer-than-expected U.S. consumer inflation data boosted expectations that the Federal Reserve might be done with interest rate hikes. On Wednesday (15 November), the rand was trading at R18.18 to the dollar, R22.77 to the pound and R19.83 to the euro. Oil is trading at $82.65 a barrel. [Reuters]