{"id":548684,"date":"2022-01-05T07:34:49","date_gmt":"2022-01-05T05:34:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=548684"},"modified":"2022-01-05T07:34:49","modified_gmt":"2022-01-05T05:34:49","slug":"5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-1191","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/548684\/5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-1191\/","title":{"rendered":"5 important things happening in South Africa today"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Here\u2019s what is happening in and affecting South Africa today:<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Coronavirus<\/strong>: In South Africa, a total of 40,105 tests were conducted in the last 24 hours, with 8,078 new cases reported, representing a 20.1% positivity rate. A further 139 Covid-19 related deaths have been reported, taking total fatalities to 91,451 to date. The total number of vaccines administered is 28.09 million.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Zondo report:<\/strong> A number of damning corruption allegations have emerged as the first part of the Zondo Commission&#8217;s report on state capture was handed over to the presidency on Tuesday. One of the key findings of the report is that former president Jacob Zuma actively advanced the interests of the Gupta family in assisting them to capture the South African state at the expense of the people. The report shows Zuma involved himself in the operational matters of entities such as SARS and Eskom and colluded with the private sector to capture institutions of state as part of his pact with the infamous family. [<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.news24.com\/news24\/southafrica\/news\/zuma-dishonest-fled-from-accountability-zondo-slams-ex-president-says-he-helped-guptas-capture-state-20220105\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">News24<\/a><\/strong>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Anti-corruption body<\/strong>: Given the high level of corruption that remains throughout government, the Zondo report has recommended the establishment of an independent agency against corruption in public procurement. The agency would be subject only to the constitution and the law and would consist of a council of five members with the chairperson being a senior legal practitioner with expertise in procurement matters. [<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.businesslive.co.za\/bd\/national\/2022-01-04-zondo-recommends-the-establishment-of-independent-anti-corruption-agency\/\">BusinessDay<\/a><\/strong>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Cold war<\/strong>: Relations between South Africa and Zimbabwe are deteriorating after the Department of Home Affairs took the decision not to renew exemption permits for hundreds of thousands of Zimbabweans residing in South Africa. In response, Zimbabwe is considering a new tax on aircraft flying between the two countries in what has become an escalating cold war. [<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.moneyweb.co.za\/news\/south-africa\/the-coming-cold-war-with-zimbabwe\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Moneyweb<\/a><\/strong>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>State of disaster<\/strong>: Western Cape premier Alan Winde has reiterated calls to end South Africa&#8217;s national state of disaster which was first implemented nearly two years ago, in March 2020. Winde said that the government&#8217;s recent decision to scrap the country&#8217;s evening curfew was a step in the right direction, but that authorities now needed to take things further by ending the state of disaster for good. [<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.enca.com\/videos\/discussion-alan-winde-calls-end-national-state-disaster\">eNCA<\/a><\/strong>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Markets<\/strong>: The rand fell on Tuesday, hurt by the US dollar striking a five-year high as investors bet the Omicron coronavirus variant would not derail the global economy or delay the Federal Reserve&#8217;s expected interest rate hikes. On Wednesday, the rand was trading at R16.04\/$, R18.10\/\u20ac and R21.69\/\u00a3.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Zuma implicated numerous times as the first part of the Zondo report is released; Recommendation made to establish a new anti-corruption body; South Africa faces a growing cold war with Zimbabwe; and calls grow to end the country&#8217;s state of disaster for good.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":504027,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-548684","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\/548684","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=548684"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548684\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":548716,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548684\/revisions\/548716"}],"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=548684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=548684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=548684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}