{"id":659077,"date":"2023-01-25T07:57:01","date_gmt":"2023-01-25T05:57:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=659077"},"modified":"2023-01-25T07:57:01","modified_gmt":"2023-01-25T05:57:01","slug":"5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-1452","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/659077\/5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-1452\/","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>Load shedding relief<\/strong>: Outgoing Eskom CEO Andre De Ruyter has hinted that South Africans could see some load shedding relief by the end of March. Speaking to the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa), De Ruyter said that 1,862MW will return to the grid by the end of March &#8211; roughly equivalent to two stages of load shedding. He adds that Eskom intends to add 6,000MW to the grid in the next two years, but the utility will need time, skills and considerable investment. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.news24.com\/news24\/politics\/parliament\/eskom-ceo-andre-de-ruyter-hints-at-load-shedding-relief-by-end-march-20230125\">News24<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Crime wave: <\/strong>Security sector experts have raised concerns over rising crime levels during peak load shedding stages. Gareth Newham, Head of Justice and Violence Prevention at the Institute for Security Studies, says that insurance figures show an increase in house burglaries and robberies, as load shedding affects people&#8217;s home security systems. Newham added that the load shedding also makes police stations &#8211; regular sites of attacks &#8211; more vulnerable. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.news24.com\/news24\/southafrica\/news\/security-experts-raise-concerns-about-rising-crime-levels-during-peak-load-shedding-schedules-20230124\">News24<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Bury the dead quickly:\u00a0<\/strong>The South African Funeral Practitioners Association (SAFPA) urges South Africans to bury their dead within four days, as load shedding and heatwaves across the country are causing bodies to decay much quicker at funeral parlours. Vuyisile Mabindisa, SAFPA national secretary general, says that burying one&#8217;s family in four days is cost-effective and prevents families from seeing their deceased loved ones in a dire state of composition. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.news24.com\/fin24\/companies\/south-africans-urged-to-bury-dead-with-four-days-amid-load-shedding-heatwave-20230124\">News24<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>US Treasury visit: <\/strong>Janet Yellen, the US Treasury secretary, will meet with President Cyril Ramaphosa later today. US Treasury says that Yellen&#8217;s visit aims to strengthen bilateral ties and address global and regional areas of concern, such as economic relations and furthering the just energy transition. Yellen&#8217;s visit has made international news, as Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was also welcomed by Ramaphosa earlier this week &#8211; the US continues to condemn Russia&#8217;s invasion of Ukraine. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/africa\/us-treasury-secretary-yellen-meet-president-ramaphosa-south-africa-trip-2023-01-24\/\">Reuters<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/658713\/all-eyes-on-south-africa-as-us-and-russia-visit\/\">Bloomberg<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Markets<\/strong>:\u00a0 South Africa&#8217;s rand weakened against the dollar on Tuesday as investors awaited the central bank&#8217;s decision on monetary policy later this week. The South African Reserve Bank (SARB) will announce its rate decision on Thursday, with 11 of the 20 economists polled by Reuters <span id=\"x1\">predicting<\/span> a hike of 50 basis points (bps) to 7.50%. Eight projected an increase of 25 bps and one predicted no change. On Wednesday (25 January), the rand was trading at R17.19\/$, R18.73\/\u20ac, and R21.18\/\u00a3. Brent crude is trading at $86.28 a barrel. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nasdaq.com\/articles\/south-african-rand-weakens-as-investors-await-rate-decision\">Nasdaq<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>De Ruyter hints at load shedding relief; concerns over rising crime during power outages; South Africans urged to bury their kin within four days; US Treasury secretary to meet with Ramaphosa. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":647059,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-659077","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\/659077","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=659077"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/659077\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":659099,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/659077\/revisions\/659099"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/647059"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=659077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=659077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=659077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}