{"id":647763,"date":"2022-12-01T08:18:03","date_gmt":"2022-12-01T06:18:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=647763"},"modified":"2022-12-01T08:18:03","modified_gmt":"2022-12-01T06:18:03","slug":"5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-1420","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/647763\/5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-1420\/","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>Ramaphosa emergency:<\/strong> The ANC&#8217;s national executive committee (NEC) is set to hold an emergency meeting on Thursday amid opposition parties calling on president Cyril Ramaphosa to resign. This comes after parliament&#8217;s advisory panel found grounds for Ramaphosa to be investigated by law enforcement agencies over the robbery at his Phala Phala game farm in 2020. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.businesslive.co.za\/bd\/politics\/2022-11-30-anc-leaders-call-emergency-meeting-after-damning-phala-phala-report\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">BusinessLive<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>S&amp;P concerns<\/strong>: While S&amp;P Global has maintained South Africa&#8217;s BB\/B credit rating with a positive outlook, it still has some problems. Like Fitch ratings, S&amp;P said that South Africa could not afford to give in to public servant wage demands of a double-digit wage increase and that despite a tax overrun, the country&#8217;s net debt is increasing \u2013 60% of GDP this year to 72% next year due to taking on two-thirds of Eskom&#8217;s debt. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.moneyweb.co.za\/news\/economy\/eskom-debt-transfer-grants-and-2024s-election-keep-sp-cautious-on-sa\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Moneyweb<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Scrap metal ban:<\/strong> On Wednesday (30 November), the government said it would ban the export of scrap and waste metal for six months to limit the damage of copper cable theft to the economy. Other measures were also announced, including a planned licensing system for copper trading, which will be launched in six months \u2013 meaning only registered buyers can purchase from registered sellers. [<a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/647693\/criminals-are-stealing-south-africa-one-piece-at-a-time-but-government-has-a-plan\/\">BusinessTech<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>TFG welcomes Amazon:\u00a0 <\/strong>Foschini-owner TFG said it&#8217;s ready to compete if US giant Amazon arrives in South Africa, as it has been steadily investing in its own online presence. While nothing official has been announced, the group says Amazon&#8217;s entry is the industry&#8217;s &#8220;worst-kept secret&#8221; and that it would encourage even more online retail adoption, TFG CEO Anthony Thunstrom said. He added that the arrival would dramatically change the online shopping industry in South Africa, with consumers being much more habituated around e-commerce shopping and app shopping than they are today. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.news24.com\/fin24\/companies\/upping-its-app-game-foschini-owner-tfg-says-its-ready-for-amazons-sa-arrival-20221130\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">News24<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Markets<\/strong>: The South African rand weakened after a parliament&#8217;s advisory panel found\u00a0grounds for lawmakers to investigate President Cyril Ramaphosa in connection with a scandal over a robbery at his Phala Phala farm. On Thursday (1 December), the rand was trading at R17.12\/$, R17.80\/\u20ac and R20.62\/\u00a3. Brent crude is trading at $85.43 a barrel. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nasdaq.com\/articles\/south-african-rand-flat-after-trade-and-budget-data\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Nasdaq<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The ANC has called an emergency meeting amid calls for Ramaphosa to resign; Standard &#038; Poor maintained South Africa&#8217;s credit rating, but it has concerns; the government will ban the export of scrap and waste metal for six months; Foschini-owner TFG said it&#8217;s ready to compete if US giant Amazon arrives in South Africa. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":647803,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872,23],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-647763","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\/647763","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=647763"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647763\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":647805,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647763\/revisions\/647805"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/647803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=647763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=647763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=647763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}