{"id":671373,"date":"2023-03-09T08:17:58","date_gmt":"2023-03-09T06:17:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=671373"},"modified":"2023-03-09T08:17:58","modified_gmt":"2023-03-09T06:17:58","slug":"5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-1483","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/trending\/671373\/5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-1483\/","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>De Ruyter claims:<\/strong> The Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) is preparing to call former Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter before it to investigate claims he made during an interview about widespread corruption at Eskom involving senior government officials. Scopa hopes to pull de Ruyter in before the end of March and is reportedly set to finalise the terms of reference by the end of next week. De Ruyter claimed senior government officials were directly involved with corruption and criminal syndicates at Eskom. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymaverick.co.za\/article\/2023-03-08-scopa-inquiry-into-de-ruyters-eskom-corruption-claims-loading-as-defence-minister-skirts-questions-on-mosi-ii\/\">Daily Maverick<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Death strike:<\/strong> Health minister Joe Phaahla says that he has received reports of deaths at hospitals in the country that may be linked to protest action and the ongoing public sector strike. Members of Nehawu have been blocking access to hospitals and obstructing doctors and nurses from doing their jobs. Emergency workers have also been threatened. The strike is not protected and workers have been urged to return to their posts. The union has also been interdicted from blocking access to healthcare. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.702.co.za\/articles\/468238\/health-minister-joe-phaala-confirms-lives-lost-from-nehawu-wage-increase-strike?ref=pid:94\">702<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Feeding the bloat:<\/strong> President Cyril Ramaphosa promised in his 2018 State of the Nation Address that he would trim his cabinet and reduce the number of departments in his executive &#8211; instead, he has only continued to add to the pile. News24 reports that the president was presented with a comprehensive plan to overhaul the government in 2019, which would have reduced the cabinet to 22 ministers. However, he disregarded this, and in fact boosted his own office with four ministers and four deputies. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.news24.com\/news24\/politics\/parliament\/exclusive-ramaphosa-asked-for-a-plan-to-cut-cabinet-bloat-hes-had-one-on-his-desk-for-4-years-20230309\">News24<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Power ships:<\/strong> Not only have the Karpowership vessels been blocked from docking in Saldanha by the Department of Forestry, Fisheries &amp; the Environment, but the group is also facing fresh challenges from environmental groups, which are likely to delay the power ship company&#8217;s plans even further. The power ships still face pending court action from The Green Connection and civil action group Outa. There is fierce opposition to the ships, despite it being a preferred bidder with support from energy minister Gwede Mantashe. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.businesslive.co.za\/bd\/national\/2023-03-08-karpowership-not-welcome-in-saldanha-port\/\">Business Day<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Markets<\/strong>: The South African rand recovered some ground on Wednesday after hitting its lowest level in almost three years after South African data showed a sharp economic contraction and on hawkish comments from US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. However, it faces renewed pressure on Thursday, after ratings agency S&amp;P Global changed its outlook for the country from positive to stable. On Thursday, the rand was trading at R18.58\/$, R19.61\/\u20ac and R22.04\/\u00a3. Brent crude is trading at $82.64 a barrel.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Scopa preparing to test Andre de Ruyter on his corruption claims; South Africa&#8217;s public sector strike turns deadly; Ramaphosa keeps adding ministers despite promises to cut cabinet; and power ships face mounting challenges in SA.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":661161,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-671373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trending","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671373","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=671373"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671373\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":671381,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671373\/revisions\/671381"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/661161"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=671373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=671373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=671373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}