{"id":371792,"date":"2020-02-07T07:21:42","date_gmt":"2020-02-07T05:21:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=371792"},"modified":"2020-02-07T07:30:40","modified_gmt":"2020-02-07T05:30:40","slug":"5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-731","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/371792\/5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-731\/","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.businesslive.co.za\/bd\/national\/2020-02-07-stakeholders-draw-up-deal-to-mobilise-savings-for-eskom-bailout\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Government business and unions have reached an in-principle agreement to use the voluntary mobilisation of savings, such as pension money, to assist Eskom and invest in infrastructure.<\/a><\/strong> The agreement is expected to be announced during President Cyril Ramaphosa\u2019s state of the nation address next week. [BusinessDay]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dw.com\/en\/angela-merkel-touts-renewables-in-coal-hungry-south-africa\/a-52281289\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">German chancellor Angela Merkel has offered to help South Africa in making the switch from coal to renewable energy.<\/a><\/strong> Coal-fired power plants are responsible for generating a large amount of South Africa&#8217;s electricity. Germany, on the other hand, plans to scrap coal-fired stations by 2038. [Deutsche Welle]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.iol.co.za\/mercury\/news\/kzn-health-clears-the-air-over-suspected-coronavirus-cases-42253975\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">South Africa is on high alert after the Department of Health in KwaZulu-Natal said it was testing two people for the Wuhan coronavirus.<\/a> <\/strong>While the patients have been given the all-clear, there are concerns that it is only a matter of time before the country has its first case. [IOL]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.news24.com\/SouthAfrica\/News\/ramaphosa-proclaims-legislation-to-establish-sexual-offences-courts-20200206\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">President Cyril Ramaphosa has given the <\/a><\/strong><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.news24.com\/SouthAfrica\/News\/ramaphosa-proclaims-legislation-to-establish-sexual-offences-courts-20200206\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">go-ahead to set up special Sexual Offences Courts.<\/a> <\/strong>It is hoped that the new courts will lead to more prosecutions and minimise secondary trauma for complainants. [News24]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Local business confidence numbers and continuously strong data from the US weighed heavily on the rand on Thursday.\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.xe.com\/currencyconverter\/convert\/?Amount=1&amp;From=USD&amp;To=ZAR\">On Friday the rand was at R14.91 to the dollar, R19.29 to the pound and R16.37 to the euro.<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Plan to use pensions to fund Eskom debt gets the green light; Germany has offered to help South Africa with a move to renewable energy; South Africa is on high alert for cases of the Wuhan coronavirus; and Ramaphosa has given the go-ahead to set up new courts which will deal with sexual offences. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":371832,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-371792","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\/371792","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=371792"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371792\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":371826,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371792\/revisions\/371826"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/371832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=371792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=371792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=371792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}