{"id":629915,"date":"2022-09-30T07:56:13","date_gmt":"2022-09-30T05:56:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=629915"},"modified":"2022-09-30T09:30:27","modified_gmt":"2022-09-30T07:30:27","slug":"5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-1376","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/629915\/5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-1376\/","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>Wage increase for Eskom:<\/strong> The CCMA awarded Eskom employees a further 1.5% wage increase, backdated to July 2021. These are unionised employees belonging to NUM, Numsa and Solidarity. This year, Eskom employees already received a 7% increase after an illegal strike triggered stage 6 load-shedding. Eskom said the 7% increase would add R1 billion to the wage bill. Now, the additional 1.5% is expected to add a further R142 million to the power utility&#8217;s wage bill, which is under unprecedented financial strain. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.news24.com\/fin24\/economy\/eskom-employees-get-another-15-wage-increase-20220929\">News24<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Bain &amp; Co banned in South Africa:<\/strong> Bain has been banned from public contracts in South Africa for a period of 10 years for engaging in corrupt and fraudulent practices related to a SARS contract that took place under Jacob Zuma\u2019s presidency. The Zondo commission found that Bain conspired and colluded with government members to undermine the revenue service&#8217;s functioning in exchange for R164 million. This follows a similar ban imposed by the UK government earlier this year. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.moneyweb.co.za\/news\/companies-and-deals\/bain-regrets-mistakes-but-disagrees-with-the-consequences\/\">Moneyweb<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Ramaphosa answers for Phala Phala:<\/strong> President Cyril Ramaphosa denied the theft of foreign exchange from his Phala Phala farm was akin to money laundering. He said that the money was made through cattle and game sales and that he reported the theft to a South African Police Service general. When asked why a case was not opened, Ramaphosa said the police had to explain why a case was never registered and added that he is committed to cooperating with all ongoing investigations. [<a href=\"https:\/\/ewn.co.za\/2022\/09\/29\/ramaphosa-denies-theft-of-foreign-currency-from-phala-phala-was-money-laundering\">EWN<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Mantashe insists SA has enough electricity:<\/strong> Minerals Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe insists South Africa has enough electricity. Speaking at an energy and mining investment conference in Limpopo on Thursday, Mantashe said there is 20,000MW of electricity sitting idle at Eskom, and the reason it&#8217;s not being rolled out to the people is simply due to a lack of skills and management at Eskom. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.enca.com\/business\/watch-mantashe-insists-sa-has-enough-electricity\">eNCA<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Markets: <\/strong>South Africa&#8217;s rand weakened in early trade on Thursday. Economists at ETM Analytics said that volatility is expected to remain for some time to come, with the USD-ZAR looking increasingly comfortable around the R18 mark. Shares on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange fell, mirroring similar moves in global equities as recession fears gripped investors. The rand is currently trading at R18\/$, R17.66\/\u20ac and R20\/\u00a3. Brent crude is trading at $87.89 a barrel.\u00a0 [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nasdaq.com\/articles\/south-african-rand-weakens-as-dollar-bounces-back\">Nasdaq<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The CCMA awards Eskom employees another wage increase; Bain has been banned from public contracts in South Africa for a period of 10 years; Ramaphosa denies money laundering claims; and energy minister Gwede Mantashe insists South Africa has enough electricity. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":564738,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-629915","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629915","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=629915"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629915\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":630021,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629915\/revisions\/630021"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/564738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=629915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=629915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=629915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}