{"id":578624,"date":"2022-04-20T08:07:26","date_gmt":"2022-04-20T06:07:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=578624"},"modified":"2022-04-20T08:07:26","modified_gmt":"2022-04-20T06:07:26","slug":"5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-1263","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/578624\/5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-1263\/","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>Construction mafia:\u00a0<\/strong>Infrastructure projects &#8211; that are key in the South African government&#8217;s post-Covid-19 economic reconstruction and recovery plan &#8211; have been derailed by an alleged &#8220;construction mafia&#8221;, according to the Bargaining Council for the Civil Engineering Industry. The group said that intimidation, extortion and violence on construction sites have reached crisis levels. Such behaviour has contributed to criticism surrounding the government&#8217;s planned R96 billion infrastructure expenditure programme. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.moneyweb.co.za\/news\/industry\/construction-mafia-creates-crisis-by-derailing-infrastructure-projects\/\">Moneyweb<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>KZN crisis:\u00a0<\/strong>Ministers dispatched by President Cyril Ramaphosa to the flood-damaged province of KwaZulu-Natal have assured residents that efforts to help those who lack water, power, and basic supplies will be ramped up. Damages to infrastructure continue to be calculated, with more than 600 schools damaged by the floods and 101 rendered inaccessible. The health department has estimated damage to health facilities to be over R187 million. Over 40,000 people have been left homeless due to damaged properties. [<a href=\"https:\/\/ewn.co.za\/2022\/04\/19\/ministers-assure-kzn-residents-they-will-ramp-up-aid-to-flood-ravaged-areas\">EWN<\/a>] [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.enca.com\/news\/kzn-floods-damage-health-facilities-over-r187m\">ENCA<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>School failure:<\/strong> No-fee and former Model-C schools have agreed that gaps in attendance due to Covid-19 disruptions have resulted in new grade 8s battling to adjust to high school. 435 of 509 pupils in grade 8 at Masan Secondary School in Mpumalanga and 300 of 418 students at Pakamani Senior Secondary School in the Eastern Cape failed the first quarterly tests. The Education Department and education experts previously warned that the Covid pandemic and truncated school schedules would have many negative long-term effects. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.timeslive.co.za\/sunday-times-daily\/news\/2022-04-19-covid-disruptions-leave-a-mark-as-grade-8s-battle-to-adjust-to-high-school\/\">TimesLive<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Relief hijack:<\/strong> Despite promises from president Cyril Ramaphosa that relief efforts in KwaZulu Natal would be carefully monitored and free of corruption, news has already spread of an attempted hijacking of care packages by eThekwini authorities. Footage emerged of council-marked vehicles trying to transport the care packages away. The city denied that the items were being hijacked and said they were destined for distressed communities. The packages were donated by private businesses specifically for rescue workers and volunteers. Witnesses reported seeing the council workers opening and consuming the packages. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymaverick.co.za\/article\/2022-04-19-how-ethekwini-staffers-tried-to-hijack-food-meant-for-rescuers-of-the-dead-and-displaced\/\">Daily Maverick<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Markets:\u00a0<\/strong>The South Africa rand was steady early on Tuesday, with investor attention on the impact of severe power cuts and devastating floods in KwaZulu-Natal companies. However, the rand later fell against a firming dollar and increasing power cuts. The rand is currently trading at R14.95\/$, R16.17\/\u20ac and R19.48\/\u00a3.\u00a0 [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nasdaq.com\/articles\/emerging-markets-stocks-slip-on-worry-about-china-slowdown-south-african-rand-falls\">Nasdaq<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Key infrastructure projects are reportedly being sabotaged by intimidation, extortion and violence on construction sites. Government ramps up relief efforts in KZN. Covid-19 disruptions have resulted in a trend of failures by new grade 8 pupils in high schools across South Africa. Viral video catches eThekwini council allegedly trying to hijack relief packages for KZN rescue workers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":578716,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[26,3888],"class_list":["post-578624","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-headline","tag-saps"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578624","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=578624"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578624\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":578718,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578624\/revisions\/578718"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/578716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=578624"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=578624"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=578624"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}