{"id":685407,"date":"2023-05-05T08:00:52","date_gmt":"2023-05-05T06:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=685407"},"modified":"2023-05-05T09:48:39","modified_gmt":"2023-05-05T07:48:39","slug":"5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-1519","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/trending\/685407\/5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-1519\/","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>Business backs Eskom investigation<\/strong>: Business Leadership South Africa CEO Busisiwe Mavuso says she is pleased that an R18 million investigation into corruption at Eskom &#8211; requested by former CEO Andre de Ruyter and funded by the BLSA &#8211; was successful in exposing crime at the embattled power utility. However, she said that she was shocked by the use of an apartheid operative in the investigation. Business Unity SA (Busa) CEO Cas Coovadia agreed that the investigation was the right thing to do but stressed that lessons could be learnt. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.businesslive.co.za\/bd\/national\/2023-05-04-business-defends-blsas-support-for-de-ruyters-investigation\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">BusinessDay<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Post Office debate:<\/strong> Newly-appointed minister of communications Mondli Gungubele says saving the South African Post Office (SAPO) is the government&#8217;s priority, adding that the organisation can become a viable business. However, Gungubele noted that the recent liquidation of the entity would affect millions of grant recipients and SMMEs that do business with it. DA MP Tsholofelo Bodlani said the organisation should be privatised after the ANC significantly harmed the entity. [<a href=\"https:\/\/ewn.co.za\/2023\/05\/04\/opposition-parties-call-for-privatisation-of-sapo-say-anc-destroyed-entity\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">EWN<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Joburg grid issues<\/strong>: City Power&#8217;s grid is on the brink after years of underinvestment and the effect of load shedding. Continuous load shedding has placed severe strain on the grid&#8217;s equipment, with residents potentially waiting between 6 and 60 hours for power to be restored when there is a trip caused by load shedding. Ward councillor Tim Truluck said households and businesses should get backup power systems as multi-day outages will continue to be experienced in the foreseeable future. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.moneyweb.co.za\/news\/south-africa\/joburg-city-power-broke-and-loss-making-with-a-grid-on-the-brink\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Moneyweb<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>ANC bends to EFF<\/strong>: The ANC will not follow its recently agreed-upon policy on coalition governments, which forbids it from supporting candidates from smaller parties for mayoral positions to appease the EFF in Johannesburg. The ANC will thus support Al Jama-ah councillor Kabelo Gwamanda when the council convenes this morning. Johannesburg has been without a mayor since Gwamanda&#8217;s party mate Thapelo Amad resigned. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.news24.com\/news24\/politics\/political-parties\/anc-ditches-its-brand-new-policy-on-coalitions-to-keep-the-eff-happy-in-joburg-20230505-2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">News24<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Markets<\/strong>: The South African rand firmed in early trade on Thursday, as the U.S. dollar fell against most major currencies following comments from the Federal Reserve that suggested it may stop hiking rates. The Fed on Wednesday raised its benchmark interest rate by 25 basis points, as expected, but also <span id=\"x1\">watered down<\/span> the language in its policy statement about the need for further rate hikes. On Friday (5 May), the rand was trading at R18.26\/$, R20.17\/\u20ac, and R23.03\/\u00a3. Brent crude is trading at $73.17 a barrel. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nasdaq.com\/articles\/south-african-rand-gains-against-weaker-dollar-after-fed-signals-pause\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Nasdaq<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BLSA stands by Eskom investigation, Saving Post Office a priority for the government, Joburg residents need to get backup power systems, ANC will support Al Jama-ah for Joburg Mayor. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":641775,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-685407","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\/685407","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\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=685407"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/685407\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":685483,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/685407\/revisions\/685483"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/641775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=685407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=685407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=685407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}