{"id":624617,"date":"2022-09-12T08:00:08","date_gmt":"2022-09-12T06:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=624617"},"modified":"2022-09-12T08:00:08","modified_gmt":"2022-09-12T06:00:08","slug":"5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-1362","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/624617\/5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-1362\/","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>Luxury audits:<\/strong> SARS has more information at its disposal than taxpayers think, experts warn &#8211; and big spenders&#8217; days of trying to fool the taxman are coming to an end. The revenue service&#8217;s new focus is on unexplained wealth, and auditing people whose tax affairs are out of step with their lifestyles is ramping up. It has gained access to a worldwide network of information and data points to sniff these offenders out. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.news24.com\/fin24\/money\/luxury-goods-audits-sars-can-probe-more-easily-than-you-think-and-the-cleanup-is-just-starting-20220912\">News24<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Deadline looming:<\/strong> The National Prosecuting Authority has two weeks to meet its own deadline to take high-profile state capture cases to court. While the NPA has started three court cases, none of those arrested or involved are high-profile politicians fingered in the revelations from the state capture commission. A miss on the end-September deadline could prompt renewed scepticism about the NPA&#8217;s resolve and capacity to prosecute. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.businesslive.co.za\/bd\/national\/2022-09-11-no-high-profile-politicians-in-the-dock-yet-as-npas-deadline-nears\/\">BusinessLive<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Billing issue:<\/strong> The City of Joburg&#8217;s billing issues continue to pile up, and so are the legal bills from having to deal with the matters through the courts. The city is failing to deal with billing complaints timeously, which end up going to court. The city always opposes these cases &#8211; and then loses, with costs. According to the Johannesburg Property Owners and Managers Association, this vicious cycle results in a further burden of unfair tariff increases that residents have no choice but to shoulder. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.moneyweb.co.za\/news\/south-africa\/courts-only-way-to-resolve-billing-issues-with-coj-says-property-association\/\">Moneyweb<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Battle for the presidency:<\/strong> South Africa may be in for a repeat of 2017, with Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma once again looking to take on Cyril Ramaphosa for leadership of the ANC. Dlamini Zuma&#8217;s spokespeople confirmed this weekend that she would accept nominations for the top job. Ramaphosa beat Dlamini Zuma by only 179 votes in the 2017 Nasrec conference. Ramaphosa&#8217;s position has been dented by the Phala Phala saga and the president&#8217;s reticence in addressing it. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymaverick.co.za\/article\/2022-09-12-daughter-signalled-nkosazana-dlamini-zumas-presidential-campaign-launch-on-whatsapp-groups\/\">Daily Maverick<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Markets<\/strong>: South Africa&#8217;s rand strengthened in early trade on Friday after the dollar eased as a hawkish rate hike from the European Central Bank (ECB) lifted the euro. The ECB raised its key interest rates by an unprecedented 75 basis points on Thursday and promised further hikes. Like most emerging market currencies, the rand tends to take its cues from global drivers without major local economic data points. On Monday, the rand was at R17.28\/$, R17.43\/\u20ac and R20.09\/\u00a3. Brent crude is trading at $91 a barrel. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nasdaq.com\/articles\/south-african-rand-strengthens-as-dollar-dips\">Reuters<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SARS has more information at its disposal than taxpayers think, experts warn; The National Prosecuting Authority has two weeks to meet its own deadline to take high-profile state capture cases to court; The City of Joburg&#8217;s billing issues continue to pile up; and South Africa may be in for a repeat of 2017, with Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma once again looking to take on Cyril Ramaphosa for leadership of the ANC.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":461342,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11121,23],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-624617","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance","category-government","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624617","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=624617"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624617\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":624643,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624617\/revisions\/624643"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/461342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=624617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=624617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=624617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}