{"id":650853,"date":"2022-12-12T08:41:43","date_gmt":"2022-12-12T06:41:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=650853"},"modified":"2023-01-10T15:01:20","modified_gmt":"2023-01-10T13:01:20","slug":"5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-1427","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/trending\/650853\/5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-1427\/","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>Joburg in the dark<\/strong>: Johannesburg&#8217;s electricity distributor, City Power, says that residents in certain areas will not have power for extended periods &#8211; these outages are unrelated to load shedding. This comes after the city was subjected to heavy flooding last week. City Power has also said that vandalism and acts of violence have hampered its efforts to bring back power across the city. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sabcnews.com\/sabcnews\/parts-of-johannesburg-to-remain-in-the-dark-for-longer-periods\/\">SABC News<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Shoprite to buy Massmart stores: <\/strong>South Africa&#8217;s biggest retailer, Shoprite, was given the go-ahead by the Competition Tribunal to acquire certain Massmart stores, but must sell ten stores deemed &#8220;highly problematic&#8221; to independent third parties. The tribunal&#8217;s decision comes after Pick n Pay, Spar and Saccawu argued against the Competition Commission&#8217;s original approval of Shoprite&#8217;s R1.36 billion takeover of Massmart&#8217;s Cambridge Food, Rhino, and Massfresh businesses in May. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.news24.com\/fin24\/companies\/shoprite-gets-a-greenlight-to-buy-some-massmart-stores-but-must-leave-some-for-independent-retailers-20221211\">News24<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Festive police presence<\/strong>: 10,000 newly trained police officers are set to be deployed across South Africa during the festive season. 4,000 of these officers will work in the public order policing unit, which will help with crowd control and ensure further police visibility. The remaining officers will work across the Sexual Investigations Unit, the Family Violence Child Protection Unit, and 30 police stations across the country. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.timeslive.co.za\/news\/south-africa\/2022-12-11-saps-beefs-up-its-manpower-with-10000-new-cops\/\">TimesLive<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/ewn.co.za\/2022\/12\/11\/more-boots-on-the-ground-will-help-fight-crime-this-festive-season-masemola\">, EWN<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Walus&#8217; parole to stay<\/strong>: Advocate Paul Hoffman said it is doubtful for Janusz Walus&#8217; parole to be overturned by the African Commission on Human and People&#8217;s Rights (ACHPR). Chris Hani&#8217;s widow, Limpho Hani, and the SACP are going to the ACHPR to overturn Walus&#8217; parole after the Constitutional Court rejected their precision application.\u00a0 Still, Hoffman believes it is unlikely that the ACHPR will intervene as the matter has already been litigated in all the relevant South African courts. [<a href=\"https:\/\/ewn.co.za\/2022\/12\/11\/slim-chance-walus-parole-will-be-overturned-legal-expert\">EWN<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Markets<\/strong>: The South African rand was trading around the R17.20\/$ mark at the end of the week, the strongest level in almost a week, on the back of stronger-than-expected domestic data. Although the rand remains quite resistant to the uncertainty surrounding load shedding, it is still trading weaker than it was two weeks ago due to President Cyril Rampahosa&#8217;s possible impeachment. On Monday (12 December), the rand was trading at R17.39\/$, R18.27\/\u20ac, and R21.267\/\u00a3. Brent crude is trading at $76.55 a barrel.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Johannesburg areas to remain in the dark; Shoprite gets go-ahead to buy Massmart stores &#8211; with strings attached; SAPS furthers police presence for the festive period, Walus&#8217; parole likely to continue. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":646651,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-650853","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trending","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650853","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=650853"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650853\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":650901,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650853\/revisions\/650901"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/646651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=650853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=650853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=650853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}