{"id":245787,"date":"2018-05-21T07:23:57","date_gmt":"2018-05-21T05:23:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=245787"},"modified":"2018-05-21T07:23:57","modified_gmt":"2018-05-21T05:23:57","slug":"5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-306","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/245787\/5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-306\/","title":{"rendered":"5 important things happening in South Africa today"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Here&#8217;s what is happening in and affecting South Africa today:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Government and public servant unions have agreed to an above-inflation wage increase for 2018\/19, <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2018-05-19\/south-africa-civil-servants-to-get-above-inflation-wage-increase\">which will see the lowest earners get a pay hike of 7%, while the highest pay-bracket will get an increase of 6%<\/a><\/strong>. The wage agreement is expected to be signed on Monday. [Bloomberg]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Embattled retail group Steinhoff is having a tough time untangling its internal debt mess, <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2018-05-18\/steinhoff-sees-first-half-loss-as-retailer-investigates-accounts\">with the group seeking three extensions to over $11 billion in debt<\/a><\/strong>. On top of its standing accounting issues, the group says that legal costs and fees to investigate the ongoing scandal have pushed the company into the red through to March. [Bloomberg]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Economist Magnus Heystek says that buying into the &#8216;Ramaphoria&#8217; effect on the country is premature &#8211; <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.moneyweb.co.za\/moneyweb-opinion\/the-zuma-disaster-what-took-you-so-long-trevor\/\">particularly when so many of the Zuma-era policies that have caused so much economic turmoil still stand<\/a><\/strong>. In particular, the land issue which is now coming to the fore, is a key concern where a loss of investment is already being felt. [Moneyweb]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>The ANC is now united on its position in the land debate, with a two-day summit on the topic bringing divergent views on land redistribution without compensation together on the same page. According to president Cyril Ramaphosa, <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymaverick.co.za\/article\/2018-05-20-ancs-land-summit-shifts-expropriation-without-compensation-debate-into-higher-gear\/#.WwJPtneg9TY\">land will be taken without compensation in South Africa, and legislation will be introduced to facilitate it.<\/a><\/strong> [Daily Maverick]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>South Africa\u2019s rand weakened on Friday as surging US Treasury yields and a continued dollar rally sent emerging markets tumbling. <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.xe.com\/currencyconverter\/convert\/?Amount=1&amp;From=USD&amp;To=ZAR\">On Monday, the rand started the week at R12.77 to the dollar, R17.16 to the pound and R15.01 to the euro.<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Government agrees to pay civil servants an above-inflation salary for this year; Steinhoff has partly revealed the extent of its tangled accounting mess; one economist isn&#8217;t buying into the &#8216;Ramaphoria&#8217; effect; and the ANC says it is united on land redistribution without compensation in South Africa.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":20450,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872,23],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-245787","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\/245787","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=245787"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245787\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":245797,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245787\/revisions\/245797"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}