{"id":265629,"date":"2018-08-17T07:48:52","date_gmt":"2018-08-17T05:48:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=265629"},"modified":"2018-08-17T07:48:52","modified_gmt":"2018-08-17T05:48:52","slug":"5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-369","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/265629\/5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-369\/","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><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/mg.co.za\/article\/2018-08-17-00-well-pay-eskom-not-municipality\">Almost 100 municipalities are trying to work out deals to pay Eskom R28 billion in debt &#8211; but companies are fighting their own battle to pay Eskom directly<\/a><\/strong>, in a bid to keep business and local economies going. Eskom is interrupting and cutting power to indebted municipalities, and businesses are affected even though they&#8217;ve paid up to municipalities. [Mail &amp; Guardian]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2018-08-16\/south-africa-s-eff-tables-bill-to-make-central-bank-state-owned\">The EFF has tabled a proposed amendment to the laws governing the Reserve Bank, which aims to privatise the group by locking private shareholders out.<\/a><\/strong> The party wants SARB to be state-owned, with directors appointed by the minister of finance, and not private shareholders. [Bloomberg]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Tiger Brands&#8217; share price took a hit after it announced to shareholders that its earnings would be taking a significant knock &#8211; thanks in large part to the listeria crisis earlier this year, where its products were in the centre. <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.iol.co.za\/business-report\/companies\/listeriosis-effect-bites-tiger-brands-16602697\">Earnings are expected to slip 37%, while headline earnings are expected down between 42% and 58%.<\/a> <\/strong>[Business Report]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wheels24.co.za\/News\/Guides_and_Lists\/we-are-being-ripped-off-readers-respond-to-car-part-prices-in-sa-20180817\">A group called the Right to Repair pushing for a change in legislation allowing motorists to service their vehicles where they choose.<\/a> <\/strong>The group says consumers have been duped into believing that parts from manufacturers are better than those at independent repair shops. However, they come off the same assembly line, it says. [Wheels24]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>South Africa\u2019s rand surrendered its earlier gains in late trade on Thursday due to lingering concerns over the economy, while a rebound in market heavyweight Naspers brought some relief on the bourse. <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.xe.com\/currencyconverter\/convert\/?Amount=1&amp;From=USD&amp;To=ZAR\">On Friday the rand was trading at R14.68 to the dollar, R18.67 to the pound and R16.70 to the euro.<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Businesses are fighting to pay Eskom directly for electricity, after municipalities fail to pay their dues; the EFF has tabled a proposed bill to nationalise the Reserve Bank; Tiger Brands takes a knock as it continues to count the cost of the listeria outbreak; and a civil group is fighting for the right to service vehicles where they choose.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":75316,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872,11121],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-265629","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-finance","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265629","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=265629"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265629\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":265647,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265629\/revisions\/265647"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=265629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=265629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=265629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}