January 28, 2016.
For Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Sane Dhlamini.
Making headlines:

An analyst doubts the usefulness of the Nersa hearings.

Sudan opens border with South Sudan for first time since 2011 secession.

And, Julius Malema urges voters to fire warning shots at ruling party in local polls.

 

The National Energy Regulator of South Africa (or Nersa) hearings have been “bitterly disappointing” and “have not worked”, an energy analyst said yesterday.

An energy analyst and spokesperson for the new Outa Ted Blom said he had reviewed the outcomes of the Nersa hearings that he had testified at since 2009, and that the results had been bitterly disappointing.

Eskom had applied for a R22.8-billion adjustment for its 2013/2014 financial year.

If this is granted, it is expected to lead to a tariff hike of at least 16%, the City of Cape Town told the panel at the Cape Town leg of the hearings.

Blom claimed that Nersa’s decisions had “blessed Eskom with over 700% price increases since 2007” and that it was clear that the hearings had not worked and the people had not been heard.

Sudan President Omar Hassan al-Bashir ordered the opening of his country's border with South Sudan for the first time since the south's secession in 2011, state news agency SUNA reported yesterday.

The border was closed in 2011 when relations deteriorated after the south seceded following a long civil war, taking with it three quarters of the country's oil, estimated at 5 billion barrels of proven reserves by the US Energy Information Administration.

South Sudanese President Salva Kiir had unexpectedly and unilaterally announced a normalisation of relations on Tuesday in response to Bashir agreeing to cut the transit fees for South Sudanese oil crossing Sudan's territory via pipeline to the Red Sea last week.

 

Julius Malema, who seeks nationalisation of mines and land and the curbing of white economic power, called on other opposition parties to unite with his EFF to break the grip of the ruling party at the municipal polls this year.

Malema said the the ruling party remained dominant and was still likely to win, but enduring poverty 25 years after apartheid was ended in South Africa had eroded its support, especially among restive young people born after 1994.

Malema told a news agency that the weak economy had raised the possibility that the ANC could lose control of either or both the commercial hub Johannesburg or capital Pretoria at the ballot.

Meanwhile, ANC Secretary General Gwede Mantashe told a press briefing that his party "was confident of retaining all metropolitan municipalities they currently govern and will be fighting to win the City of Cape Town" where the DA leads the Western Cape provincial government.

Also making headlines:

ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe said racism cannot be cured or be debated.

The IEC will brief the media in Johannesburg today about issues around the enforcement of the Electoral Code of Conduct.

And, South Africans are bracing for an interest rate hike of up to 50 basis points today, as inflationary pressures increase and the rand hovers at record low levels.

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That’s a roundup of news making headlines today