{"id":595664,"date":"2022-06-10T08:33:43","date_gmt":"2022-06-10T06:33:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=595664"},"modified":"2022-06-10T08:33:43","modified_gmt":"2022-06-10T06:33:43","slug":"5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-1298","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/595664\/5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-1298\/","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>Electricity tariff contention <\/strong>Power utility Eskom on Thursday showed support for a court application by the business chambers of Nelson Mandela Bay and Pietermaritzburg seeking for municipalities to only charge what the law permits for electricity. The applicants argue that the method used by the national energy regulator Nersa to determine municipal tariffs is unconstitutional and invalid. New tariffs are meant to take effect on 1 July. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.moneyweb.co.za\/news\/south-africa\/municipal-tariff-excessive-unlawful-says-eskom-in-support-of-business-chambers\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Moneyweb<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Not enough to save Comair:<\/strong> The combination of equity and new loans valued at R1.1 billion which was injected by a business rescue consortium into Comair was not enough to save the struggling airline. This comes as practitioners yesterday applied for the liquidation of the 76-year-old airline group noting that there was no longer a reasonable prospect that the company can be rescued. Employees and customers of the airline are now likely to face challenges including short-term pressure on domestic flights and questions over rebooking for ticket holders. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.moneyweb.co.za\/news\/south-africa\/the-failed-rescue-of-comair-was-a-gamble-from-the-beginning\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Moneyweb<\/a>] [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.news24.com\/fin24\/companies\/receding-airline-fears-over-aviation-bloodbath-as-comair-heads-for-liquidation-20220610\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">News24<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Budget vote speech:\u00a0 <\/strong>Speaking at the recent budget vote speech, President Cyril Ramaphosa said that South Africa&#8217;s trade figures show signs of economic recovery. He noted that in 2021, the country posted the largest surplus on record of R448 billion &#8211; the largest since 1987. Ramaphosa said that he will be pleased once these figures are reflected in higher levels of employment. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.enca.com\/news\/ramaphosa-trade-figures-show-signs-economic-recovery\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">ENCA<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Public Protector suspension:<\/strong> President Cyril Ramaphosa has suspended the Public Protector Busisiwe Mkwebane stating that it was the best way to fulfill his obligations amid the parliamentary process to impeach her. The Protector said that she was investigating criminal allegations against Ramaphosa&#8217;s relating to the theft of forex on his Limpopo farm. [<a href=\"https:\/\/ewn.co.za\/2022\/06\/10\/ramaphosa-mkhwebane-suspension-the-best-way-to-fulfil-my-obligations-to-sa#\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">EWN<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Markets: <\/strong>The South African rand edged lower on Thursday after poor mining and industrial production data dampened investor confidence. The recent data showed that the country&#8217;s total mining output fell by 14.9% year on year in April while manufacturing output dropped by 7.8%. The rand is currently trading at R15.46\/$, R16.44\/\u20ac and R19.33\/\u00a3. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nasdaq.com\/articles\/south-african-rand-dips-against-dollar-mining-data-disappoints\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Nasdaq<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Eskom supports a court application questioning the method that municipal electricity tariffs are determined. R1 billion was not enough to rescue failing airline Comair, leaving employees and customers facing challenges. President Cyril Ramaphosa said that South Africa&#8217;s trade figures have shown economic recovery. The Public Protector Busiswe Mkwebane has been suspended from her position.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":332763,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-595664","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\/595664","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=595664"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/595664\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":595728,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/595664\/revisions\/595728"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/332763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=595664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=595664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=595664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}