{"id":355463,"date":"2019-11-20T07:14:09","date_gmt":"2019-11-20T05:14:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=355463"},"modified":"2019-11-20T07:14:09","modified_gmt":"2019-11-20T05:14:09","slug":"5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-683","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/355463\/5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-683\/","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>Public enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan said on Tuesday that the government was committed to saving South African Airways, <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/af.reuters.com\/article\/southAfricaNews\/idAFJ8N27A018\">but there is no more money available from state coffers.<\/a><\/strong> He said that striking unions needed to work things out with SAA as quickly as possible so the airline can return to its turnaround strategy. [Reuters]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>SAA meanwhile says that nothing has changed from its side regarding the strike &#8211; <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/af.reuters.com\/article\/southAfricaNews\/idAFL8N27Z41P\">there simply is no money to pay workers more, and retrenchments have to happen to make the business viable.<\/a><\/strong> It said that unions need to consider Gordhan&#8217;s statement that there will be no more government bailouts. The only way the strike will end, is if unions accept sacrifices have to be made and take the offer of a 5.9% increase. [Reuters]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>After 300 days in office, the head of the NPA Shamila Batohi is still not close to pursuing anyone fingered in the State Capture saga, <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymaverick.co.za\/article\/2019-11-20-batohi-no-convictions-for-state-capture-accused-in-2019-prosecutions-are-likely-in-2020\/\">with prosecutions only &#8216;likely&#8217; to start emerging in 2020<\/a><\/strong>, she said. The NPA&#8217;s action on state capture has been hamstrung by low morale, capacity issues at the Hawks, and the Zondo commission into state capture &#8211; while helpful &#8211; doesn&#8217;t make building cases any easier, she said. [Daily Maverick]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Cases of kidnappings are rising in South Africa, with <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.enca.com\/news\/watch-kidnappings-rise-south-africa\">criminals now no longer only targetting the wealthy, but ordinary citizens<\/a><\/strong> &#8211; children, teenagers, or adults. Official police statistics show the number of kidnappings in South Africa has increased by 139% over the past decade, with perpetrators looking for quick ransoms usually paid through e-wallets. [ENCA]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>South Africa\u2019s rand firmed within its recent trading range on Tuesday, as investors awaited a potential breakthrough in US-China trade talks and the release of minutes of the most recent Federal Reserve meeting. The probability of a deal between Washington and Beijing receded after reports cited Chinese officials being pessimistic. <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.xe.com\/currencyconverter\/convert\/?Amount=1&amp;From=USD&amp;To=ZAR\">On Wednesday the rand was at R14.78 to the dollar, R19.08 to the pound and R16.36 to the euro.<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>No more bailouts for SAA, says Gordhan; SAA makes it clear to unions that there is no more money, so they have to make sacrifices; why no one has been charged in the state capture saga yet; and kidnappings on the rise in South Africa.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":114050,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872,23],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-355463","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\/355463","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=355463"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355463\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":355465,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355463\/revisions\/355465"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/114050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=355463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=355463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=355463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}