{"id":475644,"date":"2021-03-15T07:53:58","date_gmt":"2021-03-15T05:53:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=475644"},"modified":"2021-03-15T07:53:58","modified_gmt":"2021-03-15T05:53:58","slug":"5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-998","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/475644\/5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-998\/","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 120.4 million confirmed, with the death toll reaching 2.67 million. In South Africa, there have been 1,006 new cases, taking the total reported to 1,529,420. Deaths have reached 51,326 (a daily increase of 65), while recoveries have climbed to 1,454,290, leaving the country with a balance of 23,804 active cases. The total number of vaccines administered is 145,544.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>The foggiest:<\/strong> A new investigation reveals how the Gauteng government blew R117 million on fogging contracts &#8211; used to fumigate and sanitise government buildings, despite warnings from the World Health Organisation against the practice, and a government position against it. The report flags six companies, some of which only recently came into existence, as part of the latest look at so-called &#8216;Covidpreneurship&#8217; and graft in government. The money spent forms part of R190 million spent on Covid-19 prevention at the Gauteng department. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymaverick.co.za\/article\/2021-03-13-what-the-fog-gauteng-govt-blows-r117m-on-unnecessary-and-potentially-dangerous-covid-19-fumigation\/\">Daily Maverick<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Shutdown<\/strong>: Protesting students have threatened to shut the country down over university registrations and fees. Students are demanding that students with outstanding debt not be excluded from registration processes. This debt amounts to R10 billion at 26 institutions. Students launched protests last week, echoing calls over the previous years about no-fee tertiary education. One person was killed as a result of police action. Government has since moved to reprioritise budgets to make room for more student financing. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.timeslive.co.za\/sunday-times\/news\/2021-03-14-nationwide-university-shutdown-looms-over-student-anger\/\">TimesLive<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Basic income:<\/strong> Government is calling for the urgent implementation of a universal basic income grant, following wide support from opposition parties. The grant would replace the R350 Covid-19 relief grant currently being doled out by government, which expires at the end of April. The ANC proposes paying a R500 monthly grant to those aged 19 to 59 who aren\u2019t normally eligible for other aid, which would cost the state R197.8 billion a year. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.businesslive.co.za\/bd\/national\/2021-03-15-party-consensus-over-basic-income-grant\/\">BusinessLive<\/a> &#8211; paywall]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Vaccines<\/strong>: More doses of the Johnson &amp; Johnson Covid-19 vaccine are slowly entering the country, with 40,000 more vials expected to land this week &#8211; 20,000 on Thursday and 20,000 on Saturday. This will be added to the 40,000 vials which arrived over the weekend. Around 150,000 people have been vaccinated in South Africa so far, though the rate of vaccination has been slow, averaging 5,000 a day since the rollout started in February. Government&#8217;s targets for vaccination are likely to be missed at current rates. [<a href=\"https:\/\/ewn.co.za\/2021\/03\/15\/sa-to-receive-more-tranches-of-j-and-j-vaccine-this-week-authorities-say\">EWN<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Markets<\/strong>: The general market theme remains the focus on the recent pullback in treasury yields which continues to support the risk-on backdrop. With little data on the calendar for today, markets will keep an eye on the Eurogroup meetings. The rand is steady at R14.97 to the dollar, R17.85 to the euro and R20.81 to the pound. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.citadelglobal.co.za\/\">Citadel Global<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>More dodgy contracts related to Covid uncovered in Gauteng government departments; students threaten to shut down South Africa over university registrations and fees; government wants to fast-track a universal basic income grant for SA; and South Africa will get a few more J&#038;J vaccines this week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":461798,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11121,23],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-475644","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\/475644","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=475644"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475644\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":475664,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475644\/revisions\/475664"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/461798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=475644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=475644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=475644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}