{"id":378539,"date":"2020-03-03T07:05:21","date_gmt":"2020-03-03T05:05:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=378539"},"modified":"2020-03-03T13:07:18","modified_gmt":"2020-03-03T11:07:18","slug":"5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-747","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/378539\/5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-747\/","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<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Load shedding:<\/strong> There is no expected load shedding today, but Eskom has warned that the risk of load shedding has increased due to much higher unplanned breakdowns, which have shot to over 13,200MW. Emergency supply is being used, and the system remains volatile and unpredictable.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>GDP Data:<\/strong> Stats SA will publish the GDP data for the fourth quarter of 2019 today, revealing whether South Africa managed to grow the economy over the festive season &#8211; or whether it sank into another technical recession. There is no consensus from economists, with some expecting small growth, and others predicting a quarterly decline. The South African economy declined by 0.6% in the third quarter, after a decline of 3.2% and growth of 3.2% in the first and second quarters, respectively. [<a href=\"http:\/\/www.statssa.gov.za\/\">Stats SA<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Covid-19 Q&amp;A:<\/strong> What should you do if the think you have the Covid-19 virus? Will wearing a mask protect you? And does the government have a plan and procedures to implement if the virus makes its way to South Africa? In short, seek medical care ASAP; no, not really; and yes, there is a guide that is publicly available. These questions, and more, have been answered by the Department of Health in a Q&amp;A with the Daily Maverick. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymaverick.co.za\/article\/2020-03-02-are-we-ready-for-covid-19-the-south-african-government-responds-to-22-questions\/\">Daily Maverick<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Non-negotiable:<\/strong> Cosatu and and SACP will not negotiate on the public wage bill, saying the matter is not up for discussion. The ANC&#8217;s alliance partners met with the party&#8217;s National Working Committee in an emergency meeting on Monday, after finance minister Tito Mboweni announced plans to cut government spending on wages by R160 billion over the next 3 years. The plans have now been pushed to the National Economic Development and Labour Council. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.enca.com\/news\/anc-meets-cosatu-and-sacp-over-public-wage-bill\">Enca<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Dodging tax:<\/strong> SARS says that it lost about R2.1 billion in 2019 due to illicit trade &#8211; with exporters and importers dodging the necessary taxes on items they trade in. The problem is most prevalent in the cigarette and textile industries in South Africa, but the revenue service has seen a marked increase in sugar-related products since the introduction of the sugar tax. SARS said it was working on clamping down on this, with a particular focus on trade misinvoicing. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.moneyweb.co.za\/news\/south-africa\/sars-continues-to-fight-against-illicit-trade\/\">Moneyweb<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Markets:<\/strong> Central bankers across the globe have agreed to a telecom today, to discuss the Covid-19 outbreak, the economic impact, and what they can do assist the global economy, which could lead to widespread synchronised stimulus. The market as a whole saw a rebound on Monday, with the rand having a volatile day but closing the day stronger &#8211; but the risk to the economy and markets is far from over. On Tuesday the rand was at R15.41 to the dollar, R19.71 to the pound and R17.17 to the euro. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.xe.com\/currencyconverter\/convert\/?Amount=1&amp;From=USD&amp;To=ZAR\">[XE<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>South Africa&#8217;s Q4 GDP data is out today; do face masks help? The health department answers this and 21 other questions about Covid-19 in SA; talks with unions over proposed wage bill cuts did not go well; and SARS wants to clamp down on tax dodging importers and exporters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":368006,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11121,23],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-378539","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance","category-government","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378539","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=378539"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378539\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":378719,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378539\/revisions\/378719"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/368006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=378539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=378539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=378539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}