{"id":634723,"date":"2022-10-17T07:46:22","date_gmt":"2022-10-17T05:46:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=634723"},"modified":"2022-10-17T07:46:22","modified_gmt":"2022-10-17T05:46:22","slug":"5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-1387","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/634723\/5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-1387\/","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>No end to water crisis:<\/strong> Rand Water&#8217;s systems crashed on Sunday, causing the water supply to drop to critical levels in parts of Gauteng. Water and Sanitation Minister Senzo Mchunu says there\u2019s an emergency meeting with the Gauteng municipalities on Monday where resolutions will be made. Many residents have been without water for as many as three weeks. While no one can point to the root cause of the supply crisis, Mchunu said municipalities are partly to blame as poor infrastructure maintenance has led to water losses through leaks. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.enca.com\/news\/gauteng-water-crisis-mchunu-chair-emergency-meeting\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">eNCA<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Transnet strike continues:<\/strong> Transnet tabled a revised offer last week at the CCMA, offering a 4.5% across-the-board increase in the current year, 5.3% in 2023\/24, and 5.3% in 2024\/25. Satawu has rejected the CCMA-recommended settlement with Transnet, saying that they will not accept anything below inflation, which means the strike will continue. The unions have remained firm in their demand for a 12% wage increase. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.news24.com\/fin24\/economy\/satawu-rejects-ccmas-proposed-settlement-offer-with-transnet-20221016\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">News24<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Dischem in hot water:<\/strong> In a widely shared internal letter dated 19 September 2022, Dischem issued a moratorium outlining preferred candidates for positions, excluding white South Africans. Trade union Solidarity &#8211; which received legal confirmation that the letter was genuine &#8211; says that Dischem\u2019s absolute quota is in contravention of the Employment Equity Act. Solidarity says it is consulting with its legal team if Dischem refuses to remove the policy. [<a href=\"https:\/\/ewn.co.za\/2022\/10\/16\/dischem-s-moratorium-on-white-staff-illegal-and-discriminatory-says-solidarity\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">EWN<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Greylisting: <\/strong>Finance minister Enoch Godongwana says SA still has time to avoid greylisting by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). He disagreed with an independent report by BLSA, which said SA is 85% likely to be greylisted in February 2023. Godongwana said the government would be filing a report with the FATF in October, and it will be engaging with it \u201cright up\u201d to the final decision date. He added that there is a \u201cgood chance SA can avert it\u201d, provided stakeholders and not just National Treasury act urgently. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.businesslive.co.za\/bd\/national\/2022-10-16-sa-still-has-time-to-avert-greylisting-says-godongwana\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">BusinessLIVE<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Markets:<\/strong> South Africa\u2019s rand strengthened in early trade on Friday (14 October) as the dollar slipped after investors shifted focus away from U.S. interest rate considerations to global stock markets. The Top-40 and the broader all-share indexes rose by 2%. The rand is currently trading at R18.30\/$, R17.82\/\u20ac and R20.58\/\u00a3. Brent crude is trading at $92.43 a barrel. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nasdaq.com\/articles\/south-african-rand-rebounds-as-u.s.-dollar-trades-lower\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Nasdaq<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rand Water systems crashed on Sunday, causing the water supply to drop to critical levels; Transnet latest offer rejected as strike continues; Solidarity says it is consulting with its legal team if Dischem refuses to remove the controversial policy; and Godongwana says SA still has time to avoid greylisting by the Financial Action Task Force. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":595784,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-634723","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\/634723","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=634723"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634723\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":634755,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634723\/revisions\/634755"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/595784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=634723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=634723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=634723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}