Electron Native

South Africa’s National Treasury says it will table a new budget on June 24 to ratify plans for a 500 billion rand ($27 billion) stimulus package aimed at easing the economic impact of the coronavirus outbreak. National Treasury, Republic of South Africa. Source : CNBC. The statements explain that,“A revised fiscal framework will also be presented, to account for substantial revenue losses emanating from the economic shock of the pandemic and subsequent lockdown.” President Cyril Ramaphosa mentioned the rescue package in late April. It equates to 10% of GDP and includes higher welfare and unemployment grants as well as support for businesses.

The South African grid is about to get a major boost. South Africa is developing a plan for a new 2,500 megawatt (MW) nuclear power plant, the energy ministry told lawmakers on Thursday. Nuclear Power Plant Source : Forbes Reuters News Agency reports that Africa’s most industrialised economy, which operates the continent’s only nuclear power plant near Cape Town, said last year that it was considering adding more nuclear capacity in the long term, after abandoning in 2018 a massive nuclear expansion championed by former president Jacob Zuma. Analysts had expressed serious concern about Zuma’s project for a fleet of nuclear plants totalling 9,600 MW because it would have put massive additional strain on public finances at a time of credit rating downgrades. Its current nuclear plant, Koeberg, has a capacity of around 1,900 MW and was synchronised to the grid in the 1980s. “The development of the roadmap for the 2,500 MW Nuclear New Build Programme will be comme...

Mobile operator Vodacom Group said on Monday it had switched on Africa’s first live 5G mobile network in three cities in South Africa, with further rollouts planned in other parts of the country.   Source: BizAfricaDaily According to Reuters, Vodacom has been recently assigned temporary additional spectrum by South Africa’s telecoms regulator for the duration of a national state of disaster to tackle the coronavirus pandemic, which has been used to fast track its 5G launch, the company said in a statement. Chief Executive Officer, Shameel Joosub had said in February that Vodacom is expected to offer 5G mobile services in South Africa this year by using a network being built by another African operator, Liquid Telecom. The deployment of 5G will help Vodacom manage the 40% increase in mobile network traffic and the 250% increase in fixed traffic experienced during the five-week long coronavirus lockdown, it said. The lockdown has resulted in a spike in online ac...

A survey has shown that South African private sector activity fell to a new record low in April, as seen on Wednesday. This is due to a nationwide coronavirus lockdown and closure of companies.   Source : Bloomberg, South African Manufacturing Plant Markit’s Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) dipped to 35.1 in April from 44.5 in March. This is its lowest level since the survey began in 2011. The figure was below the 50 level that separates expansion from contraction for the 12th month in a row. Africa’s most developed economy is now in its sixth week of a strict lockdown aimed at curbing the spread of COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the novel virus, which has infected over 6,000 South Africans and killed 123. Although, the lockdown has been partially eased since Friday, allowing some sectors to operate under specific conditions, the economy, which is already in recession, is still expected to take a massive hit. The National Treasury had on Monday ...

Anglo American Platinum (Amplats) on Tuesday reports that it had completed repairs to one unit at its Anglo Converter Plant and intends to lift its force majeure to suppliers of concentrate, three months after a blast shut processing facilities.   Source : MiningMX The Johannesburg-listed miner said it expected the Anglo Converter Plant and full downstream processing operations to be fully operational at its Phase B unit from May 12, while repairs would continue at its Phase A unit. The damage to the processing facilities forced Amplats, one of the world’s largest platinum producers, to declare force majeure and cut its production outlook. “As we complete the ramp-up, we are engaging with suppliers of concentrate to lift force majeure imminently. All temporary commercial arrangements applicable during the force majeure period will revert to normal commercial terms,” Anglo American Platinum CEO Natascha Viljoen said. Amplats said the force majeure notice would ...

South Africa has gotten a thumbs up. This is because of the timeline for   the execution of her plan to overhaul its power sector by breaking up state utility Eskom. This will happen over the next three years and has been rated “somewhat optimistic,” by Standard & Poor's Global Ratings.   Eskom SA Source: The South African President Cyril Ramaphosa promised in February that he would split Eskimo into units for generation, transmission and distribution, to make the utility more efficient. A government paper released in October set out a vision for a restructured electricity supply industry, where Eskom could relinquish its near-monopoly and compete with independent power producers to generate electricity at least cost. The government plans to set up a transmission unit within Eskom by the end of March 2020 and complete the legal separation of all three units in 2022. S&P said it saw “the reform timeline as somewhat optimistic”, alt...

South Africa’s Gross Domestic Product(GDP) has grown more than expected in the second quarter. This has been attributed to a recovery in the mining and manufacturing sectors according to official data on Tuesday. This has given a reprieve to President Cyril Ramaphosa as the economy looks set to dodge recession this year.   The Rand Source: thesouthafrican.com After a downturn in the first half of 2018 when farming plunged, the economy has struggled to regain momentum, posting a shock contraction in the first quarter of this year. Analysts said while the second-quarter GDP print could see South Africa avoid recession in 2019, it was not enough to stop credit rating downgrades linked to debt issues including bailouts for state power utility Eskom. The rand extended gains after the data, firming more than 0.5 percent to a session high of 15.1125. GDP growth in the three months to June was 3.1 percent.’ This comes after a r...

South Africa’s rand has weakened early on Monday. The rainbow nations currency slumped to its weakest in almost a week. A fact blamed on the trade tensions between China and the United States. At 0615 GMT the rand was 0.2 percent weaker and sold at 15.3300 per U.S. dollar compared to a close at 15.3000 per U.S. dollar on Friday in New York. U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday heaped an additional 5 percent duty on some 550 billion U.S. dollars in targeted Chinese goods, just hours after China unveiled tariffs on 75 billion U.S. dollars worth of American goods. The rand has suffered in August, sliding around 12 percent as local pressures linked to the growing chance of a credit downgrade to junk by Moody’s, and uncertainty offshore, have stalled any long bets on the currency. Africa’s most industrialised economy relies on exports to China and the United States for a bulk of its revenue, and the deepening spat between the two super powers risks denting the country’s alr...

Moody’s has given a possible solution to South Africa on her financial problems. The Credit rating agency says the country can fund the needed bailout for electric power utility Eskom but it must make more cuts in other areas. Moody's Credit rating Agency Source: Pionline.com   Moody’s made the announcement in a statement released on Thursday, as South Africa prepares its mid-year budget review. With this advice the government of President Cyril Ramaphosa has room to ensure the lights stay on. Eskom, supplies more than 90 percent of the power that earned South Africa its reputation as the most industrialised economy. But lack of adequate financial management and poor billing regime amidst sales decline and mounting has cause it to depend on government bailouts. It is regularly cited by ratings agencies as one of the main threats to South Africa’s creditworthiness and economic growth.

South Africa’s second quarter(Q2)unemployment has risen to 29% in the second quarter (Q2) from 27.6% in the first quarter of 2019. This has been   driven by employment losses in private households, transport and mining, according to data from Statistics South Africa . South African youths protesting their lack of jobs This is  the highest jobless rate that South Africa has recorded.  The last time was in 2008 during the last Global Economic Meltdown and that was when the quarterly survey started. Statistician general, Risenga Maluleke added at a press conference that it would be difficult to create jobs in a shrinking economy.   There were 6.7 million people without jobs in the three months to the end of June, compared with 6.2 million people in the previous quarter, Statistics South Africa said its quarterly labour force survey. South Africa’s economy has contracted by 3.2% in the first three months o...