{"id":445944,"date":"2020-11-05T07:53:07","date_gmt":"2020-11-05T05:53:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=445944"},"modified":"2020-11-05T07:53:07","modified_gmt":"2020-11-05T05:53:07","slug":"5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-918","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/445944\/5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-918\/","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 47.6 million confirmed, with the death toll reaching 1,215,000. In <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DrZweliMkhize\/status\/1324056190305869825\/photo\/1\">South Africa<\/a>, there have been 1,712 new cases, taking the total reported to 730,548. Deaths have reached 19,585 (a daily increase of 46), while recoveries have climbed to 660,185, leaving the country with a balance of 50,778 active cases.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>SAA bailout<\/strong>: Public enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan says that SAA is too strategic for its restructure to fail again &#8211; however, there is now confusion over what exactly the R10.5 billion bailout will be used for. Gordhan says the funding is not a bailout, as it serves the business rescue process; however, the numbers presented by the failed airline&#8217;s administrators do not match up, with different amounts being attributed to different and new processes not previously mentioned. When questioned on the discrepancies, no answers were forthcoming. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymaverick.co.za\/article\/2020-11-05-much-vision-few-details-r10-5bn-needed-to-ready-saa-for-suitor-in-a-telkom-look-alike-restructure\/\">Daily Maverick<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Myeni<\/strong>: Delinquent director Dudu Myeni spent two hours avoiding answering any questions related to SAA at the state capture commission, out of fear of implicating herself, and having her responses used by the National Prosecuting Authority. She is being accused of corruption and maladministration during her tenure at chair of the failed airline. She did take the time, however, to say that as a black woman in a position of leadership, she is an inspiration to other black women. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.timeslive.co.za\/politics\/2020-11-04-state-capture-stand-off-as-dudu-myeni-opts-to-remain-silent-on-saa\/\">TimesLive<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.news24.com\/fin24\/companies\/industrial\/as-a-black-woman-leader-my-focus-is-on-dealing-with-poverty-and-inequality-myeni-tells-zondo-20201105\">News24<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Tenders<\/strong>: eThekwini city manager, Sipho Nzuza, who is out on bail and facing criminal charges, is still signing off on tenders, despite his bail conditions stating he is not to be involved in any tender processes. Nzuza was arrested in March this year for his alleged role in the R430\u2011million Durban Solid Waste (DSW) tender fraud case at eThekwini municipality involving former mayor Zandile Gumede, councillor Mondli Mthembu, high ranking officials and service providers. [<a href=\"https:\/\/mg.co.za\/news\/2020-11-04-ethekwini-municipal-manager-out-on-bail-but-signing-off-tenders\/\">Mail &amp; Guardian<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Matrics<\/strong>: South Africa&#8217;s class of 2020 will start their final exams today, which will be a test of how the Covid-19 crisis and lockdown impacted academics this year. Learners report experiencing mixed emotions and high levels of stress leading up to the exams, while teacher unions have expressed concern over how the coronavirus situation disproportionally affected poorer learners, who did not have the support and access to remote learning that wealthier children had. Exams will run until 15 December, with results expected in February 2021. [<a href=\"https:\/\/ewn.co.za\/2020\/11\/05\/with-matric-exams-to-start-today-sadtu-worried-about-covid-19-effects-on-pupils\">EWN<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Markets<\/strong>: The dollar slipped yet again as the votes now start to indicate a win for the Democratic Party, with Joe Biden leading the race well ahead of President Trump. This afternoon will see the release of jobless claims and Challenger job cuts in the US, followed by the Fed interest rate decision this evening. The rand rallied below the R16.00 to the dollar mark, on the back of the almost certain Biden win. We start the day at R15.90 to the dollar, R18.65 to the euro and R20.62 to the pound. [<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>Gordhan insists SAA&#8217;s bailout is not a bailout, but can&#8217;t quite pin down where the money is going; delinquent director Dudu Myeni won&#8217;t answer any questions on SAA because she doesn&#8217;t want to incriminate herself; eThekwini city manager, Sipho Nzuza is out on bail, but is still signing off tenders; South Africa&#8217;s matrics start writing their exams today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":442378,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11121,23],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-445944","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\/445944","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=445944"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445944\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":445982,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445944\/revisions\/445982"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/442378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=445944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=445944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=445944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}