{"id":133462,"date":"2016-08-17T07:42:29","date_gmt":"2016-08-17T05:42:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=133462"},"modified":"2016-08-17T07:42:29","modified_gmt":"2016-08-17T05:42:29","slug":"5-things-you-need-to-know-in-south-africa-today-23","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/133462\/5-things-you-need-to-know-in-south-africa-today-23\/","title":{"rendered":"5 things you need to know in South Africa today"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Here&#8217;s what is happening in and affecting South Africa today:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bdlive.co.za\/national\/politics\/2016\/08\/17\/eff-pulls-plug-on-hopes-for-coalition\">Hopes for a DA\/EFF coalition in major metros appear to be dashed, as the EFF &#8211; a key player for any party looking for majority control &#8211; looks ready to abstain from any solid agreements<\/a><\/strong>, opting to support or oppose on a case-by-case basis. This would leave metros like Johannesburg and Tshwane in unstable positions with two minority governments vying for power over each decision.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/af.reuters.com\/article\/southAfricaNews\/idAFL8N1AX4R1\">Courts have struck down the 9.4% tariff hike granted to Eskom this year, saying that the utility did not follow the correct process in applying for it<\/a><\/strong>. The increase was a &#8220;special fee hike&#8221; granted by Nersa for Eskom to gain back over R11 billion\u00a0to make up for the heavy use of diesel-powered generators. The court called Nersa&#8217;s decision unfair and irrational.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>The rand retreated on Tuesday with a recent rally running out of steam as the currency failed to break a signficant technical resistance level &#8211; and despite favourable risk conditions globally due to an anticipated delay to U.S. interest rate hikes. On Wednesday,<strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.xe.com\/currencycharts\/?from=USD&amp;to=ZAR\"> the rand was trading at R13.46 to the dollar, R17.52 to the pound and R15.15 to the euro<\/a><\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>In global news,\u00a0<strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/us-global-markets-idUSKCN10S03F\">Asian shares pulled back from a one-year high and the dollar strengthened on Wednesday,<\/a><\/strong> after an influential Federal Reserve official said interest rates could rise as soon as September.Wall Street shares retreated from record highs, with the S&amp;P 500 .SPX losing 0.55 percent.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/global-oil-idUSL3N1AY03I\">Oil prices fell away from 5-week highs early on Wednesday, as analysts doubted a successful outcome from producer talks to rein in ballooning oversupply<\/a><\/strong>.\u00a0Brent crude oil futures were trading at $48.85 per barrel, down 38 cents, while US crude futures were at $46.30 per barrel, down 28 cents.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>In other news<\/strong>: <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.enca.com\/south-africa\/vaal-dam-runs-dry\">The Vaal Dam, the key water source for much of Gauteng, is at its driest point in years<\/a><\/strong>, at 34% capacity. Boats have been removed from the dam, but a water crisis has not yet been declared.<\/p>\n<p><a  data-lightbox=\"post-image\" href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/Vaal-Dam-empty.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-133464\" src=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/Vaal-Dam-empty.jpg\" alt=\"Vaal Dam empty\" width=\"600\" height=\"383\" srcset=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/Vaal-Dam-empty.jpg 600w, https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/Vaal-Dam-empty-300x192.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A DA\/EFF coalition is a no go; SA courts have pulled the plug on Eskom&#8217;s fee hike; and the Vaal Dam&#8217;s water levels are shockingly low &#8211; here&#8217;s what is happening in and affecting South Africa today (17 August 2016)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":111391,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872,23],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-133462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-government","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133462","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=133462"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133462\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":133466,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133462\/revisions\/133466"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/111391"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}