{"id":364762,"date":"2020-01-08T07:22:20","date_gmt":"2020-01-08T05:22:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=364762"},"modified":"2020-01-08T07:26:59","modified_gmt":"2020-01-08T05:26:59","slug":"5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-709","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/364762\/5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-709\/","title":{"rendered":"5 important things happening in South Africa today"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Here\u2019s what is happening in and affecting South Africa today:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>South Africa&#8217;s matric class of 2019 have much to celebrate with the group boasting the highest pass rate of the last 25 years. <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/energy\/364694\/eskom-load-shedding-to-accommodate-matric-results\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">However, celebrations were dimmed somewhat by the announcement that Eskom is once again facing technical issues and has re-introduced load shedding.<\/a> <\/strong>[Eskom]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.enca.com\/news\/maths-physics-marks-worrying-dbe\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The Department of Basic Education said it&#8217;s working on a new curriculum which will help equip learners for the developing world.<\/a><\/strong> Speaking at the matric results presentation on Tuesday (7 January), Education minister Angie Motshekga said that the curriculum is set to be introduced from 2021 and will enable learners to enter the world of work as early as possible. [eNCA]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fin24.com\/News\/expat-tax-countdown-to-implementation-kicks-off-20200107\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">South Africans are preparing themselves for new amendments to the Income Tax Act, which are set to come into effect from March 2020.<\/a><\/strong> Dubbed the \u2018expat tax\u2019, the amendments mean that South African tax residents working abroad will only be exempt from paying tax on the first R1 million they earn abroad. Thereafter they will be required to pay tax on any foreign earnings. [Fin24]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.iol.co.za\/news\/world\/iran-fires-missiles-on-us-forces-in-iraq-as-revenge-for-soleimani-killing-40242931\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The tensions between the US and Iran are set to dominate the markets today after Iran launched a missile attack on US-led forces in Iraq in the early hours of Wednesday. <\/a><\/strong>US President Donald Trump said in a tweet late on Tuesday that an assessment of casualties and damage from the strikes was underway and that he would make a statement on Wednesday. [IOL]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>The rand came under pressure overnight after a fairly good performance during early trade on Tuesday as the dollar strengthened on the back of positive US economic statistics. <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.xe.com\/currencyconverter\/convert\/?Amount=1&amp;From=USD&amp;To=ZAR\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">On Wednesday the rand was at R14.33 to the dollar, R18.80 to the pound and R15.97 to the euro.<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>South Africa&#8217;s matric results were dimmed by the return of load shedding; The Department of Education says it will introduce a new curriculum at South African schools; Final preparations are being made for South Africa&#8217;s new expat tax and the tensions between the US and Iran are set to dominate the markets today. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":142924,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-364762","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\/364762","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=364762"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364762\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":364802,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364762\/revisions\/364802"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/142924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=364762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=364762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=364762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}