For Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Thabi Shomolekae.

Making headlines: Eskom to implement Stage 2 loadshedding; Unemployment rate worsens to 32.9% in the first quarter; And, First white South Africans arrive in US as Trump claims they face discrimination

Eskom to implement Stage 2 loadshedding

Power utility Eskom has announced that it will implement Stage 2 loadshedding during the evening peak from 16:00 until 22:00 from today until Thursday, in order to manage limited generation capacity and ensure continued supply during the working days.

This decision follows the delayed return of generation units amounting to 3 120 MW, as well as an additional loss of 1 385 MW in the past 24 hours dowing to unplanned breakdowns.

The primary reason for this setback is the delay in returning several units from planned maintenance. These delays, coupled with an unplanned capacity loss that has now temporarily exceeded 13 000 MW, align with the risk scenarios shared in Eskom's Winter 2025 Outlook.

Unemployment rate worsens to 32.9% in the first quarter

Statistics South Africa has reported that the official unemployment rate stood at 32.9% for the first quarter of this year, compared with 31.9% for the fourth quarter of 2024, while the expanded unemployment rate worsened by 1.2 percentage points quarter-on-quarter to 43.1%.

The one percentage point rise in the first-quarter unemployment level again raises another red flag about South Africa’s weak growth performance. With GDP growth forecasts for 2025 having been progressively reduced by various institutions and economists to about 1.5% and below, it is not unexpected that this should now be reflected in higher unemployment levels.

The overall total unemployment level is now where it was a year ago and youth unemployment in particular remains at an unacceptable magnitude.

The latest rise in unemployment again confirms that economic growth in South Africa has been too low for too long, said North-West University Business School's Professor Raymond Parsons.

The Stats SA data revealed a 291 000 decrease in the number of employed people in South Africa to 16.8-million, while the number of unemployed individuals increased by 237 000, rising to 8.2-million over the same period. These changes led to an overall decrease in the labour force by 54 000.

The number of discouraged work-seekers increased by 7 000.

And, First white South Africans arrive in US as Trump claims they face discrimination

Yesterday, the Trump administration welcomed 59 white South Africans it granted refugee status in the US, having deemed them victims of racial discrimination, while drawing criticism from Democrats and stirring confusion in South Africa.

US President Donald Trump has blocked mostly non-white refugee admissions from the rest of the world but in February offered to resettle Afrikaners, the descendants of mostly Dutch settlers, saying they faced discrimination.

Asked why white South Africans were being prioritised above the victims of famine and war elsewhere in Africa, Trump said, without providing evidence, that Afrikaners were being killed.

He told reporters at the White House that its a genocide that's taking place.

He was not favouring Afrikaners because they are white, Trump said, adding that their race makes no difference to him

South Africa maintains there is no evidence of persecution and that claims of a "white genocide" in the country, echoed by Trump's white South African-born ally Elon Musk, have not been backed up by evidence.

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today

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