{"id":514954,"date":"2021-08-23T08:00:59","date_gmt":"2021-08-23T06:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=514954"},"modified":"2021-08-23T08:00:59","modified_gmt":"2021-08-23T06:00:59","slug":"5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-1107","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/514954\/5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-1107\/","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>: In South Africa, there have been 10,748 new cases of Covid-19, taking the total reported to 2,690,973. Deaths have reached 79,421 (+170), while recoveries have climbed to 2,444,409, leaving the country with a balance of 167,143 active cases. The total number of vaccines administered is 10,527,363 (+27,389).<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Unrest:<\/strong> Police and security officials are on high alert following warnings of unrest and protest on Monday. Messages have been going around the last few weeks calling for a national shutdown, with regions of KZN potential hotspots. Some protest activities started in the early hours of Monday morning but were quickly dispersed by authorities. Members of the ANC, ANC Youth League, MK vets and other affiliated groups have been linked to the planned action, though the ANC in KZN has distanced itself from any activities. The government has called for calm while beefing up security. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.timeslive.co.za\/news\/south-africa\/2021-08-23-fiery-early-morning-protest-actions-quelled-in-durban-and-verulam\/\">TimesLive<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Social security:<\/strong> Social development minister Lindiwe Zulu&#8217;s Green Paper on social security and other reforms has been widely criticised, with business groups now weighing in, lambasting the minister for effectively ignoring five years&#8217; worth of negotiations between business and the government. While the gazetted paper contains plans and concepts that have existed for decades, business and international reports have pointed to many problems and risks &#8211; things which have apparently just been shrugged off and tossed aside. National Treasury has distanced itself from the paper, saying it is not official government policy and was published without testing it against the fiscus. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.businesslive.co.za\/bd\/national\/2021-08-23-minister-ignored-years-of-talks-on-social-safety-net-nedlac-report-shows\/\">BusinessLive<\/a> &#8211; paywall]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Self serve:<\/strong> Residents are heading back to court to fight against an order putting control of water and sewage operations back in the hands of their failed municipality. Operating as the Kgentlkengrivier Concerned Citizens (KCC) group, residents won a landmark case in 2020 where the courts allowed them to take over some municipal services after continued failure by the local government. However, the same courts are now ordering that services be handed back to the municipality. KCC raised R18 million and repaired services within days of the handover &#8211; and are now appealing to the courts, saying that under the municipality, the area will again lose services. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.moneyweb.co.za\/news\/south-africa\/nw-residents-appeal-court-decision-handing-service-delivery-back-to-municipality\/\">Moneyweb<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Corruption:<\/strong> Plans to spin off the Postbank and operate it as a fully-fledged banking group have hit a major hurdle, with past and current executives being accused of corruption. It&#8217;s alleged that executives awarded multi-million-rand contracts to service providers without following proper procurement rules. A new report now recommends that these contracts be unpacked and executives undergo lifestyle audits &#8211; placing a significant obstacle in its path to obtaining a banking licence from the Reserve Bank and becoming a full bank. The group wants to approach the SARB for a full licence by the end of 2021. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymaverick.co.za\/article\/2021-08-22-dodgy-deals-rattle-the-postbank\/\">Daily Maverick<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Markets<\/strong>: The rand felt the pinch of the stronger dollar last week, moving above R15\/$ for the first time in months. It depreciated throughout the week to trade at R15.25 by the week&#8217;s end. Locally, traders continue to assess the impact of president Ramaphosa\u2019s recent Cabinet reshuffle, including the new finance minister, along with the long-term effects of a massive explosion of a generator at Eskom\u2019s new Medupi power station. On the pandemic front, there are concerns about a potential fourth wave of Covid-19 infections in November, fueled by the fast-spreading delta variant and insufficient vaccination numbers. On Monday, the rand was at R15.22\/$, R17.84\/\u20ac and R20.79\/\u00a3. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.citadelglobal.co.za\/time-to-taper\/?utm_source=Website%20Articles&amp;utm_medium=Website&amp;utm_campaign=Weekly%20wrap%2020%20Aud%202021&amp;utm_content=Weekly%20wrap\">Citadel<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Police on high alert and quelling any protest action that pops up today; business groups lash out at social development minister&#8217;s Greep Paper; residents are fighting to keep control of municipal services as court orders handover to the authorities that failed them; and corruption allegations hamper Postbank&#8217;s plans to become a full-service bank.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":462136,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872,23],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-514954","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\/514954","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=514954"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514954\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":514980,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514954\/revisions\/514980"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/462136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=514954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=514954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=514954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}