Take every four to six hours for two hours at a time to increase your pain – Dr Eskom’s prescription for South Africans already crippled by the global pandemic. But there is a vaccine on the way, albeit months away. In a surprise announcement, President Cyril Ramaphosa said yesterday private companies will now be allowed to generate their own electricity of up to 100MW and inject it into the national grid – a hundredfold increase from the current 1MW threshold.
And while there are Ts&Cs on the power play and we bemoan our winter of discontent, there are light spots. Business and labour have thrown their weight behind Ramaphosa’s plan to help move SA out of its energy crisis.
In the markets the rand reacted positively to the announcement, clawing back yesterday’s earlier losses to trade firmer at R13.57/$ this morning. On the commodity front, gold firmed after the US CPI data, while platinum and palladium closed relatively flat. This morning, the softer dollar sees gold up at $1,900, platinum at $1,155, and palladium at $2,777. Oil is steady this morning at $70.05 for WTI and $72.27 for Brent, reports TreasuryONE.
Here’s a roundup of the world’s top and most interesting news headlines.
SA Business
Flight Center advises against booking flights on SAA and Mango – Moneyweb
US Business
G7 countries move closer to tax plan for US tech giants – AFP
Mark Zuckerberg says working remotely makes him ‘happier and more productive’ – Business Insider
US music publishers sue Roblox for $200m over copyright – AFP
In-depth
Research: How a higher minimum wage leads to lower compensation – Harvard Business
Favouritism in flight: The uneven playing field of South Africa’s aviation industry – Daily Maverick
Please note: this newsletter is slightly late this morning because of load shedding. And MTN network problems caused by load shedding.
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