{"id":371036,"date":"2020-02-05T06:59:07","date_gmt":"2020-02-05T04:59:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=371036"},"modified":"2020-02-05T06:59:07","modified_gmt":"2020-02-05T04:59:07","slug":"5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-729","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/371036\/5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-729\/","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><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.news24.com\/SouthAfrica\/News\/explainer-jacob-zuma-will-not-be-arrested-yet-despite-warrant-being-issued-20200205\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Former president Jacob Zuma is unlikely to be placed in handcuffs after the KZN High Court stayed his warrant of arrest until 6 May, when he is next expected to appear in court.<\/a><\/strong> If Zuma fails to appear at the next court appearance, the warrant will be triggered, forcing law enforcement to arrest him, says criminal law expert James Grant. [News24]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.moneyweb.co.za\/news\/gordhan-signals-pension-pot-offer-for-eskom-will-be-considered\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Minister of Public Enterprises Pravin Gordhan has indicated that Cosatu\u2019s proposal to use PIC money to support Eskom is being taken seriously.<\/a> <\/strong>The minister suggested that the PIC together with the Industrial Development Corporation and the Development Bank of South Africa could take over Eskom\u2019s debt. [Moneyweb]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.businesslive.co.za\/bd\/national\/2020-02-04-public-service-unions-vow-to-fight-proposals-to-freeze-increases\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Unions will fight government&#8217;s planned attempts to freeze public sector increases this year.<\/a> <\/strong>They argue that members deserve better salaries and perks and should not take the fall for the government\u2019s shortfalls. [BusinessDay]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/ewn.co.za\/2020\/02\/04\/jpsa-s-howard-dembovsky-confident-of-court-challenge-against-aarto-act\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">South Africa&#8217;s planned demerit system will be challenged in court by Justice Project South Africa\u2019s (JPSA). <\/a><\/strong>JPSA chair Howard Dembovsky said he was not opposed to the point demerits system, but had a problem with how it would be implemented, especially as the Aarto act will create a system where a person is guilty until they prove themselves innocent. [EWN]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>The rand continued to gain ground after following the stimulus deployed by the Chinese government which restored some of the positive sentiment and risk appetite in the market. <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.xe.com\/currencyconverter\/convert\/?Amount=1&amp;From=USD&amp;To=ZAR\">On Wednesday the rand was at R14.83 to the dollar, R19.31 to the pound and R16.37 to the euro.<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jacob Zuma won&#8217;t be in handcuffs any time soon; Gordhan suggest he supports the idea of using PIC money to fund Eskom;  Unions plan to fight planned wage freezes for government workers; and South Africa&#8217;s new demerit system is being challenged in court.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":169251,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-371036","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371036","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=371036"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371036\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":371044,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371036\/revisions\/371044"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/169251"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=371036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=371036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=371036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}