{"id":467216,"date":"2021-02-11T07:57:15","date_gmt":"2021-02-11T05:57:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=467216"},"modified":"2021-02-11T07:57:15","modified_gmt":"2021-02-11T05:57:15","slug":"5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-976","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/467216\/5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-976\/","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 Covid-19 infections have hit 107.8 million confirmed, with the death toll reaching 2.36 million. In <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DrZweliMkhize\/status\/1359598325243273218\/photo\/1\">South Africa<\/a>, there have been 3,159 new cases, taking the total reported to 1,482,412. Deaths have reached 47,145 (a daily increase of 276), while recoveries have climbed to 1,374,368, leaving the country with a balance of 60,899 active cases.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Load shedding<\/strong>: Eskom has <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Eskom_SA\/status\/1359696249033785346\/photo\/1\">suspended load shedding<\/a> on Thursday as it has recovered enough capacity. Another five units are expected to come back online over the next two days.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>SONA<\/strong>: President Cyril Ramaphosa will deliver his virtual State of the Nation Address tonight at 19h00. Expectations for any progress on the president&#8217;s 2020 promises is low, with analysts expecting another speech trying to put a positive spin on what has been one of the worst years in recent history. Lofty goals of economic growth and tackling government corruption went up in smoke a month after the 2020 SONA, where the Covid-19 pandemic and national lockdown tanked the economy, and saw officials loot millions through PPE tenders. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.timeslive.co.za\/politics\/2021-02-11-ramaphosas-2020-sona-plans-went-up-in-smoke-and-he-now-needs-to-rebuild\/\">TimesLive<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>State of disaster<\/strong>: Cabinet has approved the extension off the national state of disaster by another month, with the next &#8216;end&#8217; date set for 15 March 2020. The extension means the country has been in the state of disaster for a year. Critics and opposition parties are pushing back against the use of the Disaster Management Act to deal with the Covid pandemic, as it gives government wide-ranging powers with little to no oversight from Parliament. It can also be extended one month at a time, indefinitely. The Act gives effect to all lockdown regulations. [<a href=\"https:\/\/ewn.co.za\/2021\/02\/11\/cabinet-approves-extension-of-national-state-of-disaster-by-another-month\">EWN<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Safe:<\/strong> South Africa&#8217;s health ombudsman has assured the country that the Johnson &amp; Johnson Covid vaccine is safe, following the announcement that the single-jab treatment will replace the two-dose AstraZeneca shot in the country&#8217;s phase one rollout plan. Approximately 80,000 J&amp;J vaccines from the &#8216;research batch&#8217; will be used in the initial stages of the rollout &#8211; which targets frontline healthcare workers &#8211; with further batches scheduled for delivery later. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.enca.com\/news\/jj-vaccine-safe-health-ombuds\">ENCA<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>ANC divided<\/strong>: Former president Jacob Zuma continues to divide the ANC, as the party has not provided a clear position on his blatant defiance of the Constitutional Court. In the vacuum left by the party&#8217;s silence, Zuma supporters within the ANC have filled void with their own position &#8211; claiming the majority of provinces support the former president&#8217;s position. To date, at least two of the ANC top six have voiced support for Zuma&#8217;s opposition to constitutional proceedings in some way, while many ANC branches and internal factions have rallied behind him. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymaverick.co.za\/article\/2021-02-10-kwazulu-natal-ancs-urgent-dilemma-we-need-to-talk-about-jacob-now\/\">Daily Maverick<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Markets<\/strong>: The rand is holding steady as we start D-Day for SONA which will see all eyes on President Ramaphosa. While no surprises are expected, SONA will set the tone for the upcoming budget during a time local economic hardship. Local gold, mining and manufacturing production numbers are due today, followed by US jobless claims. The rand starts the day off at R14.73 to the dollar, R17.87 to the euro and R20.39 to the pound. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.peregrinets.co.za\/\">Peregrine Treasury Solutions<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>President Ramaphosa will deliver his state of the nation address tonight at 19h00; the state of disaster has been extended; SA&#8217;s health ombud assures the public that the Johnson &#038; Johnson vaccine is safe; and Zuma continues to divide the ANC, with supporters rallying behind his defiance of the Constitutional Court.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":313682,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-467216","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467216","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=467216"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467216\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":467250,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467216\/revisions\/467250"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/313682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=467216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=467216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=467216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}