{"id":656735,"date":"2023-01-17T08:32:24","date_gmt":"2023-01-17T06:32:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=656735"},"modified":"2023-01-17T08:32:24","modified_gmt":"2023-01-17T06:32:24","slug":"5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-1446","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/656735\/5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-1446\/","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>Diesel issues: <\/strong>Eskom and National Treasury disagree over how money should be raised to buy diesel. Eskom says load shedding will remain for another two years, and buying diesel is the only short-term relief possible. Despite the Public Investment Corporation (PIC) rolling over R13 billion of Eskom&#8217;s debt which Treasury thought would give Eskom more money for diesel, Eskom&#8217;s management says it still does not have enough money, and the PIC rollover was already included in its plans. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.news24.com\/fin24\/economy\/eskom-and-treasury-at-odds-over-diesel-funds-as-load-shedding-crisis-deepens-20230117\">News24<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>South Africa for sale: <\/strong>Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana is at the World Economic Forum (WEF) to meet with global leaders in government, business and civil society to sell South Africa as an investment destination. Godongwana says it is vital to acknowledge the challenges South Africa faces, but it is far more essential to highlight how the country is trying to address these issues. The minister says dealing with red tape and working with businesses to address the power crisis are vital areas the government is focusing on. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sabcnews.com\/sabcnews\/godongwana-on-the-charm-offensive-at-wef\/\">SABC News<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Tension in Joburg CBD<\/strong>: Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi says his office will monitor the situation in Johannesburg&#8217;s CBD after a violent protest occurred yesterday. The protest erupted after a Tanzanian man died during a police operation, with neighbours accusing the police of killing him &#8211; Lesufi said there was no evidence of physical harm. A post-mortem is expected to be done later today, and the premier asks for residents to remain calm. [<a href=\"https:\/\/ewn.co.za\/2023\/01\/17\/gauteng-premier-s-office-keeping-a-close-eye-on-joburg-cbd-after-violent-protest\">EWN<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jacarandafm.com\/news\/news\/lesufi-monitor-probe-death-foreign-national-joburg-cbd\/\">Jacaranda<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Ramaphosa beats Zuma in Court:\u00a0<\/strong>President Cyril Rampahosa welcomed the South Gauteng High Court Division&#8217;s decision to interdict the private prosecution brought against him by former president Jacob Zuma. The private prosecution accused Ramaphosa of being an &#8216;accessory after the fact&#8217; in Zuma&#8217;s case against prosecutor Billy Downer and News24 journalist Karyn Maughan. The ruling means that the President will not be required to appear in Court on Thursday for the Downer and Maughan matter. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sanews.gov.za\/south-africa\/president-ramaphosa-welcomes-high-court-decision\">SAnews<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Markets<\/strong>: The rand slumped on Monday &#8211; weakening above R17.00. Investor concerns grew due to the power crisis, which forced Ramaphosa to cancel his trip to the WEF. Quinten Bertenshaw, executive director of ETM Analytics, said that the rand&#8217;s weakening was due to the potential realisations of the ramifications of Eskom&#8217;s failures and an unwinding of the USD-ZAR shorts that South Africa is on. On Tuesday (14 January), the rand was trading at R17.08\/$, R18.50\/\u20ac, and R20.79\/\u00a3. Brent crude is trading at $84.66 a barrel. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/africa\/south-african-rand-stronger-dollar-extends-drop-2023-01-16\/\">Reuters<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Eskom and Treasury argue over diesel acquisition; Godongwana tries to sell South Africa to investors at Davos; Joburg CBD being monitored after protests; and Ramaphosa wins interdict battle against Zuma.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":647775,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872,23],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-656735","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\/656735","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=656735"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656735\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":656801,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656735\/revisions\/656801"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/647775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=656735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=656735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=656735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}