{"id":670783,"date":"2023-03-07T08:40:50","date_gmt":"2023-03-07T06:40:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=670783"},"modified":"2023-03-07T09:30:20","modified_gmt":"2023-03-07T07:30:20","slug":"5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-1481","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/670783\/5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-1481\/","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>Ramaphosa&#8217;s allies<\/strong>: President Cyril Ramaphosa is keeping his allies close with the latest changes to his cabinet. The presidency now has four ministers and four deputy ministers, including two new positions for Maropene Ramokgopa and Kgosientsho Ramokgopa &#8211; who are said to be close allies of the president. Ramaphosa&#8217;s opponents, meanwhile, got the boot, with Lindiwe Sisulu the most prominent casualty of the changes. [<a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/670479\/this-is-south-africas-new-minister-of-electricity-as-ramaphosa-announces-another-surprise-new-ministry\/\">BusinessTech<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.news24.com\/citypress\/politics\/lindiwe-sisulu-biggest-casualty-of-ramaphosas-cabinet-reshuffle-20230306\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">City Press<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Nersa changes its mind<\/strong>: Energy regulator Nersa has now endorsed the Mineral Resources and Energy&#8217;s (DMRE&#8217;s) approval of an Eskom request to build a 3000 MW gas power station in Richards Bay, KZN. The project is set to be completed by 2028 and will be able to mitigate three stages of load shedding. Nersa&#8217;s approval comes after it rejected the same proposal from the DMRE in December, arguing that Eskom followed the wrong processes. Nersa will now approach the High Court to set aside its initial decision, as it cannot overturn its own decision. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.moneyweb.co.za\/news\/south-africa\/nersas-secret-u-turn-on-eskom-gas-generation\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">MoneyWeb<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Food price warning<\/strong>: Consumer goods group AVI says consumers have still not fully felt the costs for food producers of load shedding. AVI added that the relief from the recent diesel fuel levy announcement will be minimal, as, at worst, it could just offset the cost of five hours of backup power daily. Load shedding cost the business R22 million, but it also spent over R250 million increasing its inventory due to fears regarding the effects of power cuts on its suppliers. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.news24.com\/fin24\/companies\/full-cost-of-load-shedding-hasnt-hit-shelves-yet-warns-five-roses-owner-avi-20230306\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">News24<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Phala Phala money<\/strong>: The DA says it has proof that President Cyril Ramaphosa is lying about the thousands of US dollars stolen from Phala Phala. The DA said the South African Revenue Service (SARS) could not find evidence that the cash was declared or even existed. Sudanese businessman Hazim Mustafa previously said that he declared the cash when he arrived in the country to purchase game in 2019. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.enca.com\/news\/phala-phala-farm-theft--da-says-millions-were-not-declared-to-sars\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">eNCA<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Markets<\/strong>: South Africa&#8217;s rand weakened on Monday ahead of the cabinet reshuffle, where Ramaphosa announced Paul Mashatile as the new Deputy President. On the stock market, the blue-chip index of top 40 companies ended up 0.62%, while the broader all-share index closed 0.52% higher. On Tuesday (7 March), the rand was trading at R18.24\/$, R19.49\/\u20ac, and R21.97\/\u00a3. Brent crude is trading at $86.42 a barrel. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nasdaq.com\/articles\/south-african-rand-weakens-as-investors-await-cabinet-reshuffle-0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Nasdaq<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ramapahosa keeps allies close, Nersa approves gas power station plan, AVI warns consumers, SARS cannot find a record of cash paid for Phala Phala game.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":670477,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-670783","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\/670783","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=670783"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670783\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":670849,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670783\/revisions\/670849"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/670477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=670783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=670783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=670783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}