{"id":676767,"date":"2023-03-31T08:09:45","date_gmt":"2023-03-31T06:09:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=676767"},"modified":"2023-03-31T08:19:40","modified_gmt":"2023-03-31T06:19:40","slug":"5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-1498","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/676767\/5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-1498\/","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>Cele investigated<\/strong>: The Inspector-General of Intelligence (IGI) is investigating allegations that police minister Bheki Cele, police commissioner Lieutenant-General Fannie Masemola and Hawks boss Godfrey Lebeya and other police bigwigs unlawfully issued security clearance to two officers. Cele is alleged to have issued a top-secret security clearance to a Hawks officer on the recommendation of Lebaya. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.news24.com\/news24\/southafrica\/news\/exclusive-top-cops-including-bheki-cele-under-investigation-for-illegal-security-clearances-20230331-2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">News24<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Banks linked to money laundering<\/strong>: Officials at South African banks are allegedly helping gold smugglers launder millions of dollars. Investigations have revealed that officers at three banks are being paid by a known money launderer and a gold smuggler. The officers would allow suspicious money transfers from the launderer&#8217;s companies and remove all evidence from their computer systems. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2023\/3\/30\/gold-smugglers-use-south-african-banks-bribes-to-launder-money\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Al Jazeera<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<p id=\"article_title\" class=\"article__title \"><strong>Mangaung prison&#8217;s new head<\/strong>: National Commissioner of Correctional Services Makgothi Thobakgale says security company G4S was no longer running the Mangaung Correctional Centre with a temporary manager put in charge. The announcement follows the escape of &#8216;Facebook rapist&#8217; Thabo Bester. An investigation by the Department of Correctional Services said that G4S&#8217;s director lost control of the correctional facility. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.groundup.org.za\/article\/g4s-booted-from-control-mangaung-prison-after-thabo-bester-escape\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">GroundUp<\/a>]<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>New Ekurhuleni Mayor<\/strong>: African Independent Congress&#8217;s Sivuyile Ngodwana is the new Executive Mayor of Ekurhuleni. Ngodwana was elected after the DA&#8217;s Tania Campbell was removed from the role in a motion of no confidence. The city will have a new multi-party coalition which will be headed by the ANC and EFF. Ngodwana said that the parties rallied together to remove the DA-led coalition due to a lack of service delivery for many South Africans. [<a href=\"https:\/\/ewn.co.za\/2023\/03\/31\/new-ekurhuleni-mayor-ngodwana-commits-to-regain-trust-of-residents\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">EWN<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Markets<\/strong>: South Africa&#8217;s rand strengthened against the dollar on Thursday after the central bank raised its main interest rate by a higher-than-forecast 50 basis points to 7.75%. A majority of economists polled by Reuters had expected the South African Reserve Bank to announce a 25 basis point increase. On Friday (31 March), the rand was trading at R17.86\/$, R19.46\/\u20ac, and R22.13\/\u00a3. Brent crude is trading at $79.16 a barrel. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nasdaq.com\/articles\/south-african-rand-firms-after-central-bank-rate-surprise\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Nasdaq<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Allegations against Bheki Cele investigated, three SA banks linked to money laundering, G4S removed from Mangaung prison, new Mayor of Ekurhuleni<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":647561,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-676767","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/676767","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=676767"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/676767\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":676809,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/676767\/revisions\/676809"}],"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=676767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=676767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=676767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}