{"id":578096,"date":"2022-04-19T08:12:14","date_gmt":"2022-04-19T06:12:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=578096"},"modified":"2022-04-19T08:12:14","modified_gmt":"2022-04-19T06:12:14","slug":"5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-1262","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/trending\/578096\/5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-1262\/","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>Eskom&#8217;s new low: <\/strong>The &#8216;unplanned breakdowns&#8217; that forced power utility Eskom to implement Stage 2 load shedding on Sunday marked a record high of 17,018MW of capacity taken offline. The previous worst disclosed level was 16,700MW in May 2021. The utility had 38,000MW of total coal generation capacity on Sunday, meaning 53% was offline. Due to further unit breakdowns, the utility was forced to move to stage 4 load shedding on Monday. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.moneyweb.co.za\/news\/south-africa\/load-shedding-crisis-as-eskom-breakdowns-hit-new-record\/\">Moneyweb<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Stance on Russia:\u00a0<\/strong>The Ukrainian ambassador to South Africa said that if the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky were to speak with President Cyril Ramaphosa, he would urge Ramaphosa to use his influence to stop Putin. South African officials have accused the ambassador of scuppering the call they requested because she does not like South Africa&#8217;s positions in the United Nations General Assembly. The ambassador said that she understands South Africa&#8217;s wish to remain neutral but added that &#8220;neutrality does not mean indifference&#8221;, suggesting that as a country that respects human rights and international law, South Africa should not avoid speaking out against Russia. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymaverick.co.za\/article\/2022-04-18-ukraines-ambassador-urges-sa-to-acknowledge-the-suffering-of-her-people\/\">Daily Maverick<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>KZN flood relief efforts:\u00a0<\/strong>Alongside the government&#8217;s plans to aid in the relief effort in KwaZulu-Natal by using funds from the Covid-19 Solidarity Fund, private companies have also taken to assisting affected people after severe flooding has left billions in damages. One of South Africa&#8217;s largest banks, Absa, is waiving excesses for flood-related claims. The waived excess fees are likely to amount to millions of rands. Over the past few days, Absa has received 2,000 claims nationally, with 1,634 in KwaZulu-Natal. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.news24.com\/fin24\/companies\/financial-services\/absa-waives-excess-payments-for-flood-hit-customers-in-kzn-20220419\">News24<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Land Bank overhaul: <\/strong>The deputy governor of the South African Reserve Bank, Kuben Naidoo, said that for black farmers to access finance at affordable rates, the Land Bank needs an overhaul. He said that government must establish a dedicated agricultural lender that receives an annual subsidy of roughly R2 billion from the fiscus if South Africa is to develop a class of black commercial farmers while growing the sector&#8217;s output and employment. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.businesslive.co.za\/bd\/national\/2022-04-19-land-bank-needs-overhaul-to-help-black-farmers-says-kuben-naidoo\/\">BusinessLive<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Markets: <\/strong>The World Bank announced it was cutting its global growth forecast for 2022 by nearly a whole percentage point due to the impact of Russia&#8217;s invasion of Ukraine. The organisation now expects economic growth of 3.2% in 2022, down from a prior 4.1% forecast. The rand is currently trading at R14.69\/$, R15.82\/\u20ac and R19.09\/\u00a3. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nasdaq.com\/articles\/global-markets-wall-street-seesaws-as-bond-yields-jumps-on-growth-concerns\">Nasdaq<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The latest unplanned load shedding marks a record low for Eskom. The Ukrainian ambassador to South Africa suggests that the SA government should not avoid speaking out against Russia. In KZN, Absa waives customer excesses for flood-related claims. The deputy governor of the South African Reserve Bank says the Land Bank needs an overhaul.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":578160,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[29,1164,26],"class_list":["post-578096","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trending","tag-absa","tag-eskom","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578096","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=578096"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578096\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":578186,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578096\/revisions\/578186"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/578160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=578096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=578096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=578096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}