{"id":291770,"date":"2018-12-27T08:56:22","date_gmt":"2018-12-27T06:56:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=291770"},"modified":"2018-12-27T08:56:22","modified_gmt":"2018-12-27T06:56:22","slug":"5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-459","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/291770\/5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-459\/","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:\/\/www.iol.co.za\/news\/politics\/eskom-to-continue-job-shedding-18622218\">While Eskom&#8217;s move to cut executive jobs is commendable, it will have to give over 550 other managers the chop to make a difference,<\/a><\/strong> energy experts say. The move also comes a year too late, with Eskom&#8217;s wage bill already being unreasonably high. [IOL]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.businesslive.co.za\/bd\/companies\/retail-and-consumer\/2018-12-26-starbucks-abandons-expansion-plans-in-sa\/\">Starbucks&#8217; expansion plans in South Africa have been put on hold, because they&#8217;re too expensive to open and operate.<\/a> <\/strong>Taste Holdings which own the brand in South Africa said in its latest report that, while profitable, the stores&#8217; return on investment was too low. [AFP]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.enca.com\/news\/goodbye-heatwave\">Gauteng residents can expect some relief from the heatwave<\/a><\/strong> that has hit for most of December, with cooler temperatures expected from Thursday. Extreme heat has put pressure on the province&#8217;s water supply, <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.702.co.za\/articles\/331990\/gauteng-dam-levels-drop-as-heatwave-continues\">with dam levels droppin<\/a><\/strong>g. [ENCA, 702]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.moneyweb.co.za\/news\/markets\/jpmorgan-nomura-in-opposite-corners-on-rand-2019-prospects\/\">While economists hope for a more stable 2019, uncertainty still persists, which is reflected in predictions for the rand over the next 12 months.<\/a><\/strong> The range for where the rand will end up is wide, with predictions falling between R13.95 by the end of 2019, to as high as R16.50. [Moneyweb]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>The rand recovered slightly on Thursday after slipping against the US dollar on Monday ahead of the Christmas break. If the rand can hold momentum, it could see further gains. <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.xe.com\/currencyconverter\/convert\/?Amount=1&amp;From=USD&amp;To=ZAR\">On Thursday the rand was at R14.56 to the dollar, R18.43 to the pound and R16.57 to the euro.<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Eskom will need to fire more managers, experts say; Starbucks&#8217; expansion plans in SA are on hold; Gauteng residents can expect some relief from the heatwave; and economists are unsure where the rand will end up in 2019.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":77853,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872,11121],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-291770","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\/291770","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=291770"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291770\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":291772,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291770\/revisions\/291772"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=291770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=291770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=291770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}