{"id":654019,"date":"2023-01-06T08:30:23","date_gmt":"2023-01-06T06:30:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=654019"},"modified":"2023-01-06T08:30:53","modified_gmt":"2023-01-06T06:30:53","slug":"5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-1439","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/654019\/5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-1439\/","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>Tshwane to lay criminal charges against former CFO<\/strong>:\u00a0 Tshwane Mayor Randall Williams says criminal charges will be laid against former CFO Umar Banda over the dire state of the city&#8217;s financial records. A leaked report from the Auditor General gives the City an adverse audit opinion, as it found numerous irregularities- including irregular expenditure accounting for R10.5 billion that is unaccounted for. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.timeslive.co.za\/politics\/2023-01-05-tshwane-to-lay-charges-against-ex-cfo-umar-banda-for-dismal-ag-report\/?utm_term=Autofeed&amp;utm_medium=Social&amp;utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1672927961\">TimesLive<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Further E-toll questions<\/strong>: Civil action group Outa is raising questions over Gauteng&#8217;s e-toll debt and the R12 billion it is said to owe. Outa CEO Wayne Duvenage said that even if Gauteng accepts to pay toward 30% of the bonds, it should only cover 30% of the R21 billion borrowed for the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project &#8211; around R6.3 billion &#8211; not the treasury&#8217;s estimate of R41 billion. [<a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/653969\/more-confusion-over-e-tolls\/\">BusinessTech<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>New Covid-19 outbreak unlikely<\/strong>: Health experts say that a new Covid-19 outbreak in South Africa is not likely, even as a serious outbreak of the virus hits China. According to the experts, the Chinese population has very low levels of immunity to the virus due to its intensive lockdowns &#8211; and a low vaccination rate worsens the situation. Meanwhile, South Africans have a high level of immunity from vaccination and prior infection. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.news24.com\/news24\/southafrica\/news\/sa-unlikely-to-face-fresh-covid-19-outbreak-like-china-experts-say-20230106-2\">News24<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>ANC promises renewal<\/strong>: The ANC is determined to continue its stated renewal programme as it closes its 55th National Conference. The party&#8217;s conference declaration says it plans to show South Africans that it can be trusted to improve their lives. The main focus of the declaration is to become a modern, responsive, and well-resourced political formation.\u00a0 It aims to end load shedding, address state capture and corruption, and improve basic service delivery. [<a href=\"https:\/\/ewn.co.za\/2023\/01\/06\/anc-wraps-up-national-conference-with-firm-focus-on-renewal-programme\">EWN<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Markets<\/strong>: On Thursday, the rand lost ground against the US dollar, dropping over 2% and pushing back over the R17.00\/$ threshold. Data from US Federal Reserve suggested it would continue raising interest rates, negatively affecting most developing economies. However, the Johannesburg Stock Exchange&#8217;s all share went up 1.17%, while the Top 40 added 1.26%. On Friday (6 January), the rand was trading at R17.21\/$, R18.10\/\u20ac, and R20.49\/\u00a3. Brent crude is trading at $79.29 a barrel. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.businesslive.co.za\/bd\/markets\/2023-01-05-market-wrap-rand-weakens-the-most-in-a-month\/\">BusinessDay<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The city of Tshwane to legally fight former CFO; Outa raises another alarm on e-tolls; South Africa will probably not have another wave of Covid-19 outbreaks; ANC promises to improve and reinvigorate itself. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":654089,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-654019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654019","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=654019"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654019\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":654103,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654019\/revisions\/654103"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/654089"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=654019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=654019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=654019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}