{"id":577578,"date":"2022-04-14T07:58:41","date_gmt":"2022-04-14T05:58:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=577578"},"modified":"2022-04-14T07:58:41","modified_gmt":"2022-04-14T05:58:41","slug":"5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-1261","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/577578\/5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-1261\/","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<ul>\n<li><strong>Economic decline:\u00a0<\/strong>A new report from the World Bank says that South Africa&#8217;s economic growth in 2022 is expected to be 2.8 percentage points lower than previous forecasts, due to &#8216;persistent structural constraints&#8217;. The report said that economic growth across the whole of Sub-Saharan Africa is expected to decline by 3.6% in 2022 as a result of rising inflation, supply chain disruptions and climate change shocks. Of the top three economies in Africa, including Angola and Nigeria, South Africa is expected to see the largest decline. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.moneyweb.co.za\/news\/africa\/sub-saharan-growth-to-slump-to-3-6-this-year-world-bank\/\">Moneyweb<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Bus strike averted:\u00a0<\/strong>Ahead of the Easter weekend, the South African Road Passenger Bargaining Council said that talks between the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa and employer associations in the bus passenger sector had been constructive. As a result, both parties have said that they will no longer strike. This has allowed for many South Africans Easter travel plans to remain unchanged. The group stressed that the possibility of a future strike remains. [<a href=\"https:\/\/ewn.co.za\/2022\/04\/14\/nationwide-bus-strike-averted-for-now-at-least\">EWN<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>KZN state of disaster:<\/strong> A state of disaster has been declared in KwaZulu-Natal following severe flooding and mudslides, which have left roughly 259 people dead and thousands homeless. In an official government gazette, the head of the national disaster management centre said that all organs of state must strengthen support to implement contingency arrangements. President Cyril Ramaphosa met with grieving eThekwini communities on Wednesday but faces backlash from certain affected who believe that the government did not assist enough. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.enca.com\/news\/kzn-floods-state-disaster-declared-kzn\">ENCA<\/a>] [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.timeslive.co.za\/sunday-times-daily\/news\/2022-04-13-cops-never-came-cyril-doesnt-care-desperate-durbanites-vent-their-fury\/\">TimesLive<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Public Protector block:\u00a0<\/strong>The public protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane has launched urgent legal action to block President Cyril Ramaphosa from suspending her and to stop the impeachment inquiry against her from continuing. Ramaphosa said that the multiple allegations that the public protector has against him, do not disable him from executing his constitutional power to suspend or remove her from office. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.news24.com\/news24\/southafrica\/news\/mkhwebane-can-investigate-me-but-that-shouldnt-block-me-from-suspending-her-ramaphosa-20220414-2\">News24<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Markets: <\/strong>Global investor optimism lifted shares on Wednesday despite blurry inflation forecasts as bank earnings and oil supply concerns boosted trading sentiment. Equity markets suffered from hawkish moves from the world&#8217;s top central banks in response to inflation. Oil prices rose after Russian President Vladimir Putin said that on-and-off peace talks with Ukraine had hit a dead end, fueling supply worries, with U.S. crude oil recently rising 3.51% to $104.13 per barrel. The rand is currently trading at R14.52\/$, R15.84\/\u20ac and R19.07\/\u00a3. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nasdaq.com\/articles\/global-markets-global-equities-rise-despite-inflation-scares-oil-climbs\">Nasdaq<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A new report shows that South Africa&#8217;s economic growth is set to decline. A bus strike which would have left South Africans having to change their Easter weekend plans has been averted. A state of disaster has officially been declared in KwaZulu-Natal following severe rain and flooding. The public protector has launched an urgent legal action to block President Cyril Ramaphosa from suspending her.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":577638,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-577578","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\/577578","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=577578"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577578\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":577650,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577578\/revisions\/577650"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/577638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=577578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=577578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=577578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}