5 important things happening in South Africa today

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

• Southern Africa – not just Zimbabwe – are celebrating the resignation of Zim president Robert Mugabe, who announced that he will be stepping down on Tuesday evening. It has been reported that Mugabe has already left the country, leaving behind a sense of hope for the nation. However, some uncertainty persists, with many leaders now calling for free and fair elections.

• Eskom has lowered its tariff hike request from 19.9% to 18.9% for direct customers, and from 27.5% to 26.9% for municipalities. The reason for the lowering of the request is because Eskom’s revenue requirement dropped by R7 billion. Nersa is expected to announced what increase has been granted on 7 December.

• Disgraced former Eskom CEO Brian Molefe insists he had nothing to do with any state looting, and denied knowing about Eskom’s contracts with Trillian. He did, however, admit that he had met with the Guptas several times and had known them for a long time. He denied going to a shebeen in Saxonwold, however.

• Government continues to keep South Africans in the dark over its controversial nuclear energy build, with energy minister David Mahlobo dodging questions laid into him at a portfolio committee meeting. Mahlobo kept the country’s ‘R1 trillion’ nuclear plans a mystery, saying that they aren’t saying they are procuring, and they aren’t saying they’re not procuring.

• South Africa’s rand stumbled on Tuesday, driven by a firming dollar and negative sentiment ahead of credit rating decisions at the end of this week. On Wednesday, the rand was back under R14 to the dollar, trading at R13.99 to the dollar, R18.54 to the pound and R16.43 to the euro.