{"id":314610,"date":"2019-05-03T06:55:48","date_gmt":"2019-05-03T04:55:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=314610"},"modified":"2019-05-03T06:55:48","modified_gmt":"2019-05-03T04:55:48","slug":"5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-545","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/314610\/5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-545\/","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>Despite estimates saying that Eskom&#8217;s employment numbers are 66% too high, <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2019-05-02\/south-africa-s-ramaphosa-promises-no-job-losses-at-eskom\">president Cyril Ramaphosa is dancing to unions&#8217; tune and promising that no jobs will be cut<\/a> <\/strong>at the power utility as he executes a plan to split it into three entities. [Bloomberg]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>New research shows that there are around <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.timeslive.co.za\/politics\/2019-05-02-over-2-million-voters-still-undecided-say-ct-based-researchers\/\">2.2 million registered voters who are still undecided on who to vote for in next week&#8217;s elections<\/a> <\/strong>&#8211; a number significant enough to make a material impact for any party. [TimesLive]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/mg.co.za\/article\/2019-05-03-00-gauteng-too-close-to-call-for-anc\">The ANC&#8217;s internal polling shows that it will secure a victory in Gauteng<\/a><\/strong>, but is still cutting things pretty close. The polls show the ANC winning with 56% of the vote in the province, while the DA&#8217;s internal polling shows an ANC loss at 44%. Analysts say the truth lies somewhere in between. [M&amp;G]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/ewn.co.za\/2019\/05\/03\/mandela-prison-drawing-sells-for-usd112-575-in-new-york\">A drawing by former president Nelson Mandela has drawn over R1.6 million at auction in New York<\/a><\/strong>. The sketch of the inside of a Robben Island prison cell was completed by Mandela in 2002, and was expected to fetch $60,000 to $90,000 at auction. [EWN]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>South Africa\u2019s rand weakened on Thursday, alongside emerging markets, after the US central bank kept benchmark lending rates unchanged, but struck a hawkish tone. <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.xe.com\/currencyconverter\/convert\/?Amount=1&amp;From=USD&amp;To=ZAR\">On Friday the rand was at R14.53 to the dollar, R18.95 to the pound and R16.24 to the euro.<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ramaphosa dances to Cosatu&#8217;s tune as he promises no job cuts at Eskom; 2.2 million voters are undecided on who to vote for; ANC poll shows a victory in Gauteng; and Nelson Mandela&#8217;s sketch of prison fetches R1.6 million at auction.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":99168,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-314610","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314610","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=314610"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314610\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":314612,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314610\/revisions\/314612"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=314610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=314610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=314610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}