{"id":653679,"date":"2023-01-05T08:20:45","date_gmt":"2023-01-05T06:20:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=653679"},"modified":"2023-01-05T08:20:45","modified_gmt":"2023-01-05T06:20:45","slug":"5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-1438","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/653679\/5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-1438\/","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>E-toll refund: <\/strong>Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi says that South Africans who have paid their e-tolls will be refunded. Lesufi said that R6.9 billion would be repaid to motorists. The decision whether or not to refund Gauteng motorists was a key reason for the delay in closing e-tolls &#8211; which were initially planned to be scrapped on 31 December 2022. Lesufi noted that 95% of the issues surrounding e-tolls had been addressed and that he was hopeful that the system would be officially scrapped in the next two weeks. [<a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/653537\/e-toll-payments-will-be-refunded-lesufi\/\">BusinessTech<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>ANC Conference resumes:\u00a0<\/strong>South Africa&#8217;s ruling party, the African National Congress (ANC), will continue its 55th annual conference today, 5 January. The party failed to finalise all matters during a 5-day meeting in Nascrec in December. Delegates will meet virtually at venues in their respective provinces to address final resolutions emerging from commissions held at the conference. The party will also consider amendments to its constitution. [<a href=\"https:\/\/ewn.co.za\/0001\/01\/01\/anc-should-focus-on-policy-as-national-conference-resumes-thursday-says-analyst\">EWN<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Fewer holiday road deaths so far<\/strong>: As holidaymakers return home this week, the Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal governments remain hopeful that fewer road deaths will occur this festive season. Both provinces have preliminary reports that suggest that road deaths are reducing. KZN officials noted that the target of a 10% reduction in road deaths had so far been bettered &#8211; currently standing at 13%. The Western Cape reported 97 deaths during the festive season, down from 207 at the same time last year. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.news24.com\/news24\/southafrica\/news\/western-cape-kzn-hope-for-fewer-festive-season-road-deaths-as-holidaymakers-head-home-20230105\">News24<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Two Beaches in Cape Town reopen<\/strong>: After conducting water tests, the City of Cape Town has reopened Strand Beach and Small Bay in Blaauwberg- both beaches were affected by sewage problems. However, a section of Fish Hoek Beach remains closed. The City has recently struggled with numerous sewage issues at its beaches, which it attributes to higher stages of load shedding causing damage to infrastructure. [<a href=\"https:\/\/ewn.co.za\/2023\/01\/04\/ct-s-strand-and-small-bay-beaches-reopen-following-sewage-spills\">EWN<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Markets<\/strong>: The rand reached a 4-month high against the dollar on Wednesday, trading at R16.82\/$. South Africa and other emerging markets fared well prior to the release of minutes by the US Federal Reserve. Gold, a valuable commodity export for South Africa, also reached a six-month high &#8211; trading at $1,866 an ounce. On Thursday (5 January), the rand was trading at R16.94\/$, R17.91\/\u20ac, and R20.31\/\u00a3. Brent crude is trading at $81.97 a barrel. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.news24.com\/fin24\/markets\/rand-at-four-month-high-as-market-awaits-fed-minutes-20230104\">News24<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>R6.9 billion e-toll refunds coming; ANC resumes national conference; preliminary reports from KZN and Western Cape show fewer festive season road deaths; and Cape Town reopens beaches after sewage spills. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":645245,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872,23],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-653679","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\/653679","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=653679"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653679\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":653709,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653679\/revisions\/653709"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/645245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=653679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=653679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=653679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}