{"id":672951,"date":"2023-03-16T08:15:06","date_gmt":"2023-03-16T06:15:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=672951"},"modified":"2023-03-16T08:15:06","modified_gmt":"2023-03-16T06:15:06","slug":"5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-1488","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/672951\/5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-1488\/","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>SA on high alert<\/strong>: Security forces have assigned the EFF\u2019s planned national shutdown a high-risk status. This is to stop a repeat of the July 2021 unrest. Security chiefs agreed to deploy a large police force, with the military and the NPA on standby. The national shutdown scheduled for next Monday, 20 March, will be spearheaded by the EFF, with the African Transformation Movement and the SA Federation of Trade Unions also joining. The EFF said that it wants an end to the electricity crisis and for President Cyril Ramaphosa to resign. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.businesslive.co.za\/bd\/national\/2023-03-15-no-key-infrastructure-off-limits-in-shutdown-julius-malema-warns\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">BuinessDay<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Cele corruption<\/strong>: The former chief financial officer of the Crime Intelligence&#8217;s secret services account, Tiyani Hlungwani, has filed an affidavit implicating Police Minister Bheki Cele in an allegedly corrupt deal involving the purchase of surveillance equipment without the relevant exemption. Hlungwani said that he was under pressure to finalise the procurement of R102 million worth of grabbers in 2019. He alleged that Cele tried obtaining an exemption after the purchase of the grabbers, which was too late as the initial purchase was a crime. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.news24.com\/citypress\/news\/police-minister-cele-implicated-in-corrupt-grabber-deal-20230315\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">City Press<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Strike concludes:<\/strong> Public servants in the healthcare sector will likely return to work today as the National Education, Health and Allied Workers\u2019 Union (Nehawu) strike concluded. Workers protested to force the government to negotiate wage increases for the 2022\/23 financial year, despite the government implementing a 3% increase six months ago. The government has agreed to review some of 2022&#8217;s demands during the 2023\/24 wage negotiations, which are underway at Public Service Coordinating Bargaining Council (PSCBC). [<a href=\"https:\/\/ewn.co.za\/2023\/03\/16\/healthcare-workers-set-to-return-to-work-following-end-to-nehawu-strike\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">EWN<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>DA candidates announced<\/strong>: Despite never being in any leadership position, Lungile Phenyane, a member of the party in Tshwane, is contesting all of the party&#8217;s leadership positions at its congress next month. Phenyane will go up against John Steenhuisen and Mpho Phalatse for the position of party leader. She will also contest for the role of federal council chairperson against Helen Zille. She is also in the running for all of the remaining four DA leadership positions. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.news24.com\/news24\/politics\/political-parties\/an-unknown-36-year-old-has-put-herself-forward-for-every-available-leadership-position-in-the-da-20230316\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">News24<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Markets<\/strong>: South African shares and the rand plummeted on Wednesday as the US banking crisis spread to Europe, wreaking havoc on global markets. The country&#8217;s blue-chip Top 40 and its broader all-share indexes fell around 3% to the lowest this year. On Thursday (16 March), the rand was trading at R18.43\/$, R19.55\/\u20ac, and R22.27\/\u00a3. Brent crude is trading at $74.61 a barrel. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nasdaq.com\/articles\/south-african-shares-rand-pummeled-as-banking-crisis-spreads\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Nasdaq<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Security forces on high alert for national shutdown, Police Minister implicated in alleged corruption, Nehawu strike concludes, DA member contests all leadership positions. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":647561,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-672951","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\/672951","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=672951"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672951\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":672981,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672951\/revisions\/672981"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/647561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=672951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=672951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=672951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}