{"id":620569,"date":"2022-08-29T08:00:15","date_gmt":"2022-08-29T06:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=620569"},"modified":"2022-08-29T08:00:15","modified_gmt":"2022-08-29T06:00:15","slug":"5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-1352","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/620569\/5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-1352\/","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>Illicit trade:<\/strong> SARS is going after a tobacco company and several bankers for alleged money laundering and illicit trade valued at around R3 billion. SARS alleges that the company enlisted five bank officials to help transfer the funds to foreign countries and then delete transaction details from the system. SARS has accused the owners of failing to declare R2.5 billion in income from illicit sales nor R400 million in VAT. The bank in question has admitted that transactions were tampered with. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymaverick.co.za\/article\/2022-08-29-r3bn-fraudulent-intentional-tax-evasion-an-in-depth-account-of-how-sars-bust-tobacco-gold-plunder-network\/\">Daily Maverick<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>RAF policy:<\/strong> The Road Accident Fund faces legal challenges over its new policy to reject claims from victims of road accidents who are on medical aid. The fund argues that these victims are covered by insurance and thus suffer no losses nor incurred any expenses. However, victims and insurer Discovery are challenging the policy in court. They argue that the RAF Act doesn&#8217;t discriminate between people with or without medical aid, and the policy violates victims&#8217; basic human rights. [<a href=\"https:\/\/ewn.co.za\/2022\/08\/29\/raf-in-hot-water-for-new-policy-to-stop-paying-for-past-medical-aid-expenses\">EWN<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Sunflower oil:<\/strong> The grain industry has responded to the Competition Commission&#8217;s latest report, where the commission warned that sunflower oil and grain products could be at risk of &#8216;opportunistic pricing&#8217; by retailers. The commission found that local pricing for these products does not match global trends and may result from retailers taking more off the top. The grain industry said pricing along the value chain changes frequently and that prices reflect any given period. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.news24.com\/fin24\/companies\/agribusiness\/are-sunflower-oil-price-increases-opportunistic-industry-insiders-explain-20220829\">Fin24<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Covid warning:<\/strong> Virology experts warn that South Africa could face another wave of Covid-19 infections, stressing that while lockdown and associated regulations have ended, Covid-19 has not been eradicated. Several countries have continued to experience outbreaks, disrupting economic activity and putting pressure on healthcare systems. The expert said South Africa has low vaccination rates, putting it at risk for another wave. The World Health Organisation has urged countries not to become complacent in fighting the virus. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.enca.com\/news\/covid-19-expert-says-sa-can-expect-another-wave-soon\">ENCA<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Markets<\/strong>: South Africa&#8217;s rand weakened against the dollar on Friday as US Federal Reserve Chief Jerome Powell&#8217;s comments suggested the US central bank will keep raising interest rates to tame inflation. Without major domestic economic data, the rand is set to take its cue from global drivers. On Monday, the rand was trading at R16.99\/$, R16.86\/\u20ac and R19.81\/\u00a3. Brent crude is trading at $102 a barrel. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nasdaq.com\/articles\/south-african-rand-weakens-on-hawkish-fed-stocks-slip\">Reuters<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SARS comes down hard on illicit cigarette traders; the RAF is under fire for new policy; industry responds to Competition Commission report on sunflower oil; and experts warn South Africa may be in for another Covid wave.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":479183,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872,23],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-620569","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\/620569","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=620569"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620569\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":620619,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620569\/revisions\/620619"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/479183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=620569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=620569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=620569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}