{"id":657839,"date":"2023-01-20T08:06:23","date_gmt":"2023-01-20T06:06:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=657839"},"modified":"2023-01-20T08:07:04","modified_gmt":"2023-01-20T06:07:04","slug":"5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-1449","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/657839\/5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-1449\/","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>Calls to fire Mantashe: <\/strong>#UniteBehind is starting the #FixEskom campaign which calls on government to end load shedding and find alternative electricity-producing sources. The campaign wants the planned tariff hikes for 2023\/24 and 2024\/25 ditched, for municipalities to procure their own electricity sources and build new infrastructure, and for Gwede Mantashe, Mineral Resources and Energy Minister, to be fired. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.moneyweb.co.za\/news\/south-africa\/fire-gwede-mantashe-say-activists\/\">MoneyWeb<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Students pushed through fail: <\/strong>Only 43.35% of students who failed grade 11 and were pushed through to matric passed the final exam. The Department of Basic Education\u2019s policy on progressing students who failed a grade attempts to unblock the system as pupils were unnecessarily repeating a grade more than once. Angie Motshekga, the Basic Education minister, praised the performance of the nearly 21,000 progressed pupils who passed, as they now have the opportunity to further their education [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.timeslive.co.za\/news\/south-africa\/2023-01-20-most-matriculants-who-were-pushed-from-grade-11-to-12-failed-matric\/\">TimesLive<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Solar-powered street lights for<\/strong> <strong>Johannesburg: <\/strong>City Power is implementing solar-powered street lights across Johannesburg, which will stay on during load shedding.\u00a0 The utility said that load shedding has allowed crime to thrive across the city, but the implementation of solar powered-lights will keep residents safe during the night when load shedding occurs. The solar-powered street lights will also help prevent government infrastructure from being stolen or vandalised in the dark. [<a href=\"https:\/\/ewn.co.za\/2023\/01\/19\/joburg-city-power-plans-to-roll-out-solar-powered-street-lights\">EWN<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Eskom office has power turned off: <\/strong>The Eskom office in Empangeni in KwaZulu-Natal has no electricity as it was disconnected for not paying an almost R500,000 electricity bill. The uMhlathuze municipality is conducting electricity disconnection on entities with large electricity debt. The city says it will also disconnect the departments of transport, education and social welfare as well as Mhlathuze Water in Richards Bay. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.timeslive.co.za\/news\/south-africa\/2023-01-19-kzn-north-coast-eskom-office-disconnected-for-not-paying-r500k-electricity-bill\/\">TimesLive<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Markets<\/strong>: The South African rand weakened on Thursday as a Reuters poll predicted the central bank would deliver another interest rate hike next week. Eleven of the twenty economists polled by Reuters <span id=\"x1\">predicted<\/span> the South African Reserve Bank would raise rates by 50 basis points to 7.50% at its upcoming rate-setting announcement on 26 January. On Friday (20 January), the rand was trading at R17.27\/$, R18.71\/\u20ac, and R21.37\/\u00a3. Brent crude is trading at $86.49 a barrel. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nasdaq.com\/articles\/south-african-rand-weakens-c.bank-seen-raising-rates-next-week\">Nasdaq<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>#FixEskom campaign launched; most learners who were progressed to matric, fail final exam; Johannesburg to get some solar infrastructure; Eskom office has no power. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":641185,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-657839","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657839","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=657839"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657839\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":657875,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657839\/revisions\/657875"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/641185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=657839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=657839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=657839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}