{"id":617473,"date":"2022-08-17T07:49:03","date_gmt":"2022-08-17T05:49:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=617473"},"modified":"2022-08-17T09:39:57","modified_gmt":"2022-08-17T07:39:57","slug":"5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-1344","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/617473\/5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-1344\/","title":{"rendered":"5 important things happening in South Africa today"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Here&#8217;s what is happening in and affecting South Africa today:<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Police corruption:<\/strong> The National Prosecuting Authority&#8217;s Investigating Directorate is looking into allegations of corruption surrounding the procurement of PPE for the SA Police Service, and the value of the graft uncovered so far is ballooning. In February 2022, investigators discovered R1.9 million worth of PPE corruption &#8211; six months later, the value now sits at R8.95 million. The cases arise from charges of corruption, theft, fraud and forgery against the former head of the police supply chain and 14 others. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymaverick.co.za\/article\/2022-08-16-police-ppe-corruption-balloons-to-r8-5m-as-investigating-directorate-uncovers-more-dodgy-contracts-suspects\/\">Daily Maverick<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Medical schemes:<\/strong> The Board of Health Funders is taking legal action against the Council for Medical Schemes over the latter&#8217;s bid to eliminate low-cost benefit options in the country. The CMS announced plans to disallow these schemes at the end of 2019. These plans target low-income members and offer only primary healthcare for low monthly fees. While the CMS has put a hold on these schemes, insurance companies have filled the gap with similar products. The BHF wants the moratorium overturned. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.news24.com\/fin24\/companies\/health\/medical-schemes-take-regulator-to-court-over-cheap-options-20220817\">News24<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>End load shedding:<\/strong> South Africa will need R1.25 trillion by 2035 to add 50 gigawatts of renewable energy to the grid and end load-shedding. This is according to Windlab managing director Peter Venn. The renewable energy boss said that the country needs to put as many Megawatts as it can on the grid, adding that new builds will only come out of renewables, so that needs to be leveraged going forward. [<a href=\"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/energy\/456795-south-africa-needs-r1-25-trillion-to-stop-load-shedding.html\">MyBroadband<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>ANC cleanup:<\/strong> The ANC says that murderers, rapists, child and women abusers and people found guilty of corruption will no longer be considered for membership &#8211; even going as far as barring &#8216;deadbeat parents&#8217; from applying. The proposals are in a new document drafted by the party&#8217;s subcommittee on constitutional and legal affairs, which will be distributed to ANC branches for discussion. The proposals need a two-thirds majority in favour to pass and become policy. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.timeslive.co.za\/politics\/2022-08-16-anc-details-plan-to-keep-deadbeats-rogues-and-rascals-out-of-the-party\/\">TimesLive<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Markets<\/strong>: The rand weakened on Tuesday along with other EM currencies as global growth concerns moved back to centre stage. Oil also felt the pinch as demand concerns weighed on prices. Commodity-driven currencies slumped, following the data from China, with the dollar holding a near one-week high. On Wednesday, the rand was trading at R16.40\/$, R16.69\/\u20ac and R19.87\/\u00a3. Brent crude is trading at $93 a barrel. [<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Citadel_Global\">Citadel Global<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Authorities uncover more corruption at the SAPS; medical schemes fight back against the industry regulator; South Africa will need R1.25 trillion to end load shedding; and the ANC outlines a new plan to keep criminals and rogues out the party.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":313682,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872,23],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-617473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-government","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617473","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=617473"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617473\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":617541,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617473\/revisions\/617541"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/313682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=617473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=617473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=617473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}