For Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Halima Frost.

Making headlines: Eskom insists delayed return of Koeberg Unit 1 won’t increase loadshedding risk; National operation sees police arrest over 15 000 in seven days; And, Kganyago says tariffs, China deflation cloud South Africa CPI

Eskom insists delayed return of Koeberg Unit 1 won’t increase loadshedding risk

Eskom has announced a delay to the return of Koeberg Unit 1 from another extended maintenance outage, but insists that the risk of loadshedding this winter has not increased as a result.

The unit was shut early in the year for the second phase of its long-term operation maintenance programme, which was a requirement of its 20-year life extension granted by the National Nuclear Regulator for the unit last year.

The outage was meant to last 150 days, and the unit was initially scheduled to return to service in July.

However, Eskom today announced that Unit 1 was now scheduled to be back online only by the end of August, following inspections that revealed tube defects.

Eskom insisted that the delayed return of Unit 1 did not increase the risk of loadshedding, which has waned materially since 2023 when power cuts were an almost daily or twice daily occurrence.

National operation sees police arrest over 15 000 in seven days

National police commissioner Fannie Masemola has commended the South African Police Service on its high-density crime prevention and combatting action plan, which led to 15 627 arrests across the country.

The operations took place between July 7 and 13 and led to the arrests of 2 624 wanted individuals linked to serious and violent crimes and 141 suspects for murder.

Police spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Vincent Mukhathi said KwaZulu-Natal recorded the highest number of suspects for murder, at 38.

Mukhathi noted that during the operation, 158 people were arrested for attempted murder while 122 were arrested for rape. Free State recorded the most arrests with 28. 

Mukhathi pointed out that 1 680 people were arrested for assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm; 317 for drug dealing and 2 073 for drug possession.

He said 122 people were arrested for illegal possession of firearms and for driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

And, Kganyago says tariffs, China deflation cloud South Africa CPI

South African central bank chief Lesetja Kganyago flagged that dollar depreciation, because of US tariffs and deflation in China, are clouding the outlook for inflation locally ahead of a rate-setting meeting at the end of the month.

After reneging on plans to impose sweeping duties on US trading partners earlier this year, President Donald Trump renewed his threat to institute them by August 1 unless nations reach bilateral trade deals with it. The country is South Africa’s largest trading partner after China.

Speaking on the sidelines of a meeting of the Group of 20 bloc of nations just outside of Durban, Kganyago said the big thing about the tariffs is that they would impact on economic activity.

Price increases normally affect the nation that imposes tariffs, but if other countries start retaliating, “then you might have a general rise in prices globally,” he added.

On the other hand, China might be facing deflation, the governor said.

And the effect could be that they would be exporting deflation or disinflation, which could offset the higher prices caused by tariffs.

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today

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