{"id":394712,"date":"2020-05-04T07:12:36","date_gmt":"2020-05-04T05:12:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=394712"},"modified":"2020-05-04T07:12:36","modified_gmt":"2020-05-04T05:12:36","slug":"5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-788","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/394712\/5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-788\/","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>Coronavirus:<\/strong> Global cases of Covid-19 have hit 3,566,330, with 248,286 deaths. 1,154,072 people have recovered, but 2,163,972 cases remain active, with 50,046 being in serious or critical condition. In South Africa, cases have increased to 6,783, with deaths at 131.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Some recovery:<\/strong> South Africa&#8217;s economy is expected to see some recovery as approximately 1.5 million workers return to productivity this week, following South Africa&#8217;s move to level 4 lockdown. The roads are busier and factories are fuller &#8211; but the bulk of the country&#8217;s workforce still remains blocked from getting back to it. South Africa&#8217;s economy is expected to contract by between 5% and 12% this year &#8211; and in a worst case scenario, 7 million people could lose their jobs. However, a quicker recovery could see this number shrink to 3 million. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.enca.com\/business\/economy-expected-pick-activity\">ENCA<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>More money:<\/strong> deputy finance minister David Masondo has defended his position on South Africa&#8217;s monetary policy &#8211; specifically that the South African Reserve Bank should temporarily create money to fund the government response to the Covid-19 pandemic and its economic fallout. He urged SARB to buy government bonds directly to fund the country\u2019s deficit during the coronavirus crisis. The comments raised eyebrows as it is once again a government official treading into the territory of the central bank and its mandate. [<a href=\"https:\/\/af.reuters.com\/article\/southAfricaNews\/idAFL8N2CL08N\">Reuters<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Running out of time:<\/strong> SAA employees are running out of time to accept voluntary retrenchment packages, with public enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan negotiating a slight extension of the deadline to the end of this week. Government is mulling ways to allow the restructuring of the airline to resume, as it sits on the cusp of liquidation. Government wants a new, smaller airline to emerge from the ashes of SAA, but a plan for this is yet to be finalised. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.moneyweb.co.za\/news\/companies-and-deals\/last-chance-saloon-at-saa-for-labour-and-government-say-brps\/\">Moneyweb<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Wealth tax:<\/strong> Prominent voice on tax affairs in South Africa, Judge Dennis Davis (of the Davis Tax Committee) says there are proper grounds for a wealth tax to be implemented in South Africa to help rebuild the economy. Davis argues that while the wealthy are already taxed by South Africa&#8217;s progressive tax system, it is clear that wealthy people are also doing a good job at hiding their wealth &#8211; citing tax stats that show 6,000 people earning over R5 million a year, while the property market alone shows these numbers should be far higher. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.702.co.za\/articles\/382501\/debating-a-wealth-tax-it-raises-a-moral-question-in-sa-s-unequal-society?ref=pid:93\">702<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Markets<\/strong>: The rand lost most of its recent gains as a result of last week\u2019s rebalance of the World Government Bond Index (WGBI). The recent resumption of tension between the US and China, which seems to be intensifying, is adding pressure to the fragile risk appetite, causing additional market jitters. Local manufacturing PMI and vehicle sales are due locally today, while the US will release factory orders. We start the day at R18.88 to the dollar, R20.67 to the euro and R23.52 to the pound.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>South Africa&#8217;s economy to get a boost as 1.5 million people get back to work today; deputy finance minister raises eyebrows as he encroaches on the SARB&#8217;s mandate; SAA employees have until the end of the week to sign off on retrenchment packages; and debate around a wealth tax in South Africa heats up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":390563,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11121,23],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-394712","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\/394712","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=394712"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394712\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":394718,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394712\/revisions\/394718"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/390563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=394712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=394712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=394712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}