{"id":529464,"date":"2021-10-15T08:22:53","date_gmt":"2021-10-15T06:22:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=529464"},"modified":"2021-10-15T08:35:14","modified_gmt":"2021-10-15T06:35:14","slug":"5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-1145","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/529464\/5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-1145\/","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 947 new cases of Covid-19, taking the total reported to 2,914,827. Deaths have reached 88,506 (+40), while recoveries have climbed to 2,802,980, leaving the country with a balance of 23,341 active cases. The total number of vaccines administered is 19,899,964 (+231,787).<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Rejected:<\/strong> South Africa&#8217;s steelworker strike enters its second week after union Numsa rejected a new offer from employers. The unions wanted an 8% increase on wages for this year (backdated), followed by two years of CPI+2% increases. Employers initially offered a 4.4% increase but upped the offer to 6% this week. While Numsa said workers would be willing to settle for 6%, they would only do so if the increase was reflected in actual wages, not minimum wages. As it stands, the industry is not offering the increase on real wages paid, so the deal has been rejected, the union said. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.news24.com\/fin24\/economy\/steel-strike-stalemate-ongoing-as-numsa-slams-4-non-offer-20211014\">News24<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Flagged:<\/strong> The National Institute for Communicable Diseases has flagged a rise in new Covid-19 infections, noting that the number of new Covid-19 cases on Thursday has overtaken the average of new infections recorded over the previous seven days. The country recorded 947 new cases, versus the average of 730 over the past week. South Africa is currently on lockdown level 1, with restrictions eased on gatherings. With peak election season ongoing and many more rallies and voting to take place, experts are still warning about a possible fourth wave to follow near the end of the year. [<a href=\"https:\/\/ewn.co.za\/2021\/10\/15\/nicd-flags-increase-in-new-covid-cases-as-942-infections-reported\">EWN<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Hostage:<\/strong> The South African police have arrested 56 people on three counts of kidnapping after they held Defence Minister Thandi Modise, her deputy, Thabang Makwetla, and Minister in the Presidency Mondli Gungubele hostage at St George&#8217;s Conference Centre in Irene, Pretoria, on Thursday evening. The people belong to the disgruntled Liberation Struggle War Veterans group, who earlier this week stormed Luthuli House, causing an evacuation. The members from various military veteran associations demanded to speak directly to ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa and deputy president David Mabuza. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.enca.com\/news\/56-war-veterans-arrested-holding-ministers-hostage\">ENCA<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Zuma:<\/strong> Jacob Zuma, out on medical parole, addressed supporters and allies at a political rally-prayer meeting combo on Thursday via video. In his address, the former president ran through his typical playbook: He maintained his innocence in all allegations of corruption against him, claimed that he was being politically targetted, that the entire legal system and judiciary was stacked against him, and that the media was complicit in distributing anti-Zuma propaganda. Zuma&#8217;s staunchest supporters also addressed the crowd, many of whom are also accused of or have been charged with wrongdoing. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.timeslive.co.za\/sunday-times-daily\/politics\/2021-10-14-im-being-politically-persecuted-jacob-zuma-tells-prayer-meeting\/\">TimesLive<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Markets<\/strong>: The South African rand was steady against the dollar on Thursday, taking a breather after two days of solid gains. This week the rand has been boosted by market bets that the South African central bank would raise its main lending rate at its next monetary policy meeting in November, as well as an increase in the gold price and demand for local bonds. It shrugged off mixed domestic economic data, which reinforced the view that the economic recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic has been uneven across sectors. On Friday, the rand was at R14.76\/$, R17.14\/\u20ac and R20.21\/\u00a3.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Steelworker strike continues as union rejects latest offer; NICD flags increase in Covid infections; 56 people arrested for taking defence minister hostage; and &#8216;prayer meeting&#8217; shows exactly who is rallying in support of Jacob Zuma.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":504027,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872,23],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-529464","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\/529464","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=529464"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529464\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":529500,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529464\/revisions\/529500"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/504027"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=529464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=529464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=529464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}