{"id":429792,"date":"2020-08-31T07:47:55","date_gmt":"2020-08-31T05:47:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=429792"},"modified":"2020-08-31T07:47:55","modified_gmt":"2020-08-31T05:47:55","slug":"5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-871","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/429792\/5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-871\/","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>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ecdc.europa.eu\/en\/geographical-distribution-2019-ncov-cases\">Global Covid-19<\/a> infections have hit 25 million confirmed, with the death toll reaching 843,000. In <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DrZweliMkhize\/status\/1300166925595619328\/photo\/1\">South Africa<\/a>, there have been 2,505 new cases, taking the total reported to 625,056. Deaths have reached 14,028 (an increase of 47), while recoveries have climbed to 538,604, leaving the country with a balance of 72,424 active cases.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Under siege<\/strong>: President Cyril Ramaphosa has reportedly emerged from ANC NEC meetings in a stronger position within the party &#8211; but was under siege by certain factions throughout proceedings. The president faced backlash over his approach to corruption within government, with those who stand accused of wrongdoing &#8211; including former president Jacob Zuma &#8211; coming out in attack mode. Ramaphosa faces calls to step down from these members, but may now instead make a show of strength through a cabinet reshuffle. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymaverick.co.za\/article\/2020-08-31-ramaphosa-reportedly-emerges-strong-amid-talk-of-cabinet-reshuffle\/\">Daily Maverick<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Tito stays<\/strong>: Finance minister Tito Mboweni has assured South Africans that he remains in his position and stands firm in his goal of helping save the economy. Speculation was rife ahead of the ANC&#8217;s NEC meeting at the weekend that the finance minister would either be pushed out of the position or would resign. However, Mboweni has made it clear that he is &#8220;firm&#8217;y&#8221; still in place in the position, and will continue his work. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.businesslive.co.za\/bd\/national\/2020-08-30-tito-mboweni-im-here-to-fix-the-economy\/\">Business Day &#8211; paywall<\/a>].<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Airtime theft<\/strong>: A new investigation has revealed widespread abuse and theft by unscrupulous wireless access service providers on Vodacom&#8217;s network, who are draining millions of rands from network users through fraudulent billing. The latest evidence, however, shows that SIMs used for machine-to-machine communication are being drained. It is impossible for these SIMs to actively sign up to WASPs, so it is conclusive evidence that they are being fraudulently billed for these services. [<a href=\"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/cellular\/365418-damning-evidence-about-mass-airtime-theft-from-vodacom-subscribers.html\">MyBroadband<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Alcohol clamp down<\/strong>: A bill first proposed in 2016 could be adopted alongside the AARTO act to add a higher drinking age to the plans for a zero-percent limit for drivers. The proposed bill would see the legal drinking age pushed to 21 years. South Africa&#8217;s alcohol laws and regulations are under intense scrutiny, after political will swelled behind moves to review them. Alcohol abuse is being blamed for a growing number of road accidents and cases of trauma at hospitals. [<a href=\"https:\/\/select.timeslive.co.za\/news\/2020-08-31-drunken-south-africans-rev-up-calls-to-tighten-booze-laws\/\">TimesLive<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Markets<\/strong>: South Africa\u2019s rand surged against the dollar on Friday, as the US currency fell heavily and global investors hunted for higher-yielding assets in emerging markets. Data last week pointed to a modest pickup in price pressures in Africa\u2019s most industrialised economy, adding to signs the central bank may bring a recent series of rate cuts to a close. On Monday, the rand is trading at R16.57 to the dollar, R22.11 to the pound and R19.73 to the euro. Commentary by Reuters. [<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>President Ramaphosa has reportedly emerged stronger from the ANC NEC&#8217;s push against him &#8211; and a reshuffle might follow soon; FinMin Tito Mboweni says he&#8217;s &#8220;firmly&#8221; sticking to his position at National Treasury; more evidence of fraudulent airtime theft on Vodacom&#8217;s network; and proposed alcohol laws from 2016 have re-emerged.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":423010,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872,23],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-429792","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-government","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429792","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=429792"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429792\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":429798,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429792\/revisions\/429798"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/423010"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=429792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=429792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=429792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}