{"id":533116,"date":"2021-10-29T07:48:39","date_gmt":"2021-10-29T05:48:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=533116"},"modified":"2021-10-29T07:48:39","modified_gmt":"2021-10-29T05:48:39","slug":"5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-1155","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/533116\/5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-1155\/","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 533 new cases of Covid-19, taking the total reported to 2,921,114. Deaths have reached 89,104 (+55), while recoveries have climbed to 2,813,442, leaving the country with a balance of 18,568 active cases. The total number of vaccines administered is 22,116,947 (+192,032).<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Wages:<\/strong> As finance minister Enoch Godongwana prepares to deliver his first budget speech on 11 November, public servants should expect little to no salary increase for the 2022\/23 financial year, as the government tries to contain costs. The public sector wage bill is one of the largest items in the budget, accounting for around a third of expenditure. The 2021 medium-term expenditure framework (MTEF) assumes no pensionable salary increases for public servants in the 2022-2023 financial year. However, it does provide room for a 1.5% increase annually over the period. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.news24.com\/news24\/southafrica\/news\/no-salary-increase-on-cards-for-public-servants-as-govt-looks-to-contain-wage-bill-godongwana-20211028\">News24<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Booster shots:<\/strong> Sisonke study healthcare workers can receive Johnson &amp; Johnson booster shots at more than 250 designated sites from 8 November. Over half a million essential workers qualify for the booster, having first taken the shots as part of the study in February this year. A booster shot has shown to be effective in combatting Covid-19, and the US has approved Pfizer, Moderna and J&amp;J shots as boosters. Adults who received a J&amp;J jab more than two months ago can receive boosters and allow eligible people to mix and match their shots. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.businesslive.co.za\/bd\/national\/2021-10-29-booster-jabs-for-health-workers-to-start-rolling-out-on-november-8\/\">BusinessLive<\/a> &#8211; paywall]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Power:<\/strong> Energy Minister, Gwede Mantashe, has announced 25 more preferred bidders for the country&#8217;s Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPP). These bidders will now have six months to complete all financing and project agreements, which Mantashe says will inject around R50 billion and 14,000 jobs into the economy. The minister couldn&#8217;t comment on the latest round of load shedding, saying that his department (energy) was not in charge of Eskom and couldn&#8217;t do as it pleased with the utility. He said load shedding was due to Eskom not running existing capacity efficiently. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.enca.com\/business\/sa-electricity-crisis-25-more-ipp-bidders-announced\">ENCA<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Imbalance:<\/strong> A new research study conducted by the University of Cape Town reveals how the government&#8217;s national lockdowns in response to the Covid-19 pandemic disproportionately hit the poorer communities in South Africa, especially regarding access to food. One of the most significant blows to poor communities was the government shutting down the informal economy, where many people sourced food. Although the supply and sale of food were declared an &#8220;essential service&#8221;, the reality was that vast sections of the informal sector were closed down under the new rules. [<a href=\"https:\/\/ewn.co.za\/2021\/10\/29\/sa-s-divided-food-system-saw-producers-consumers-lose-out-in-lockdown-study\">EWN<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Markets<\/strong>: The South African rand extended its losses on Thursday, as continued power cuts weighed on market sentiment, while traders also turned cautious ahead of local elections and a medium-term budget statement. National Treasury postponed the release of the MTBPS to 11 November due to local elections on Monday, 1 November. On the other hand, utility Eskom continued to implement scheduled power cuts, which were ramped up on Wednesday after faults at its ailing coal fleet. Constant power cuts seemed to have no effect on investors&#8217; sentiment, however, as over 80% of the markets are linked to the performance of the US. On Friday, the rand was at R15.14\/$, R17.67\/\u20ac and R20.88\/\u00a3. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nasdaq.com\/articles\/south-african-rand-falls-as-power-cuts-weigh-stocks-rise-2021-10-28\">Reuters<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Godongwana says public sector wage increases are not currently in the budget; Sisonke participants can soon go get a Covid booster shot; Mantashe announces more bidders for SA&#8217;s energy programme; and a new study shows how government&#8217;s lockdown rules disadvantaged the poor more than anyone.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":462056,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872,23],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-533116","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\/533116","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=533116"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/533116\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":533152,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/533116\/revisions\/533152"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/462056"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=533116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=533116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=533116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}