{"id":685851,"date":"2023-05-08T08:11:51","date_gmt":"2023-05-08T06:11:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=685851"},"modified":"2023-05-08T08:16:47","modified_gmt":"2023-05-08T06:16:47","slug":"5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-1520","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/685851\/5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-1520\/","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>Exemption not possible<\/strong>: Energy expert Adil Nchabeleng says the Pretoria High Court&#8217;s recent ruling to exempt schools, hospitals, and police stations from load shedding does not make sense from a technical point of view. Nchabeleng said that Eskom would have to overhaul its entire infrastructure and distribution networks to exempt those institutions. He added that the government should instead provide alternative energy sources, such as solar, but acknowledged that it would be costly. [<a href=\"https:\/\/ewn.co.za\/2023\/05\/07\/load-shedding-exemption-not-technically-feasible-says-energy-expert\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">EWN<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Tourism masterplan:<\/strong> Patricia de Lille wants to reach 21 million tourist arrivals in South Africa by 2030. The minister said her department aims to surpass pre-Covid visitor numbers via its Tourism Recovery Plan. She added that South Africa needs to be made safer for tourists, and the nation&#8217;s borders must be opened with e-visas and improved air access with more direct flights into the country. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.moneyweb.co.za\/moneyweb-opinion\/lets-get-to-over-21m-tourist-arrivals-before-2030-de-lille\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Moneyweb<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Election cost<\/strong>: The Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) says it is under more financial pressure after President Cyril Ramaphosa recently signed the Electoral Amendment Bill into law. The amendment allows independent candidates to contest national and provincial elections. The IEC said its increased financial obligations include changes to the ICT business applications, logistic information systems, and results systems. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.news24.com\/news24\/politics\/parliament\/with-independent-candidates-in-the-mix-sa-elections-are-becoming-an-expensive-exercise-says-iec-20230508\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">News24<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Mayor face-off<\/strong>: Former Johannesburg mayor Mpho Phalatse says she is finalising the next step of action against current mayor Al Jama-ah&#8217;s Kabelo Gwamanda after accusing him of being involved in a Ponzi scheme. Phalatse noted that the DA was meeting with victims who were supplying a large amount of incriminating evidence against Gwamanda. Al Jama-ah leader Ganief Hendricks said the allegations were false and that the party and the ANC vetted Gwamanda. [<a href=\"https:\/\/ewn.co.za\/2023\/05\/08\/phalatse-resolute-about-lifting-lid-on-ponzi-scheme-allegations-against-gwamanda\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">EWN<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Markets<\/strong>: The South African rand fell on Friday as a deepening crisis across U.S. regional banks kept global investors on tenterhooks and <span id=\"x1\">boosted demand for safe-haven assets<\/span>. The rand is highly sensitive to shifts in global investor sentiment. On Monday (8 May), the rand was trading at R18.38\/$, R20.30\/\u20ac, and R23.26\/\u00a3. Brent crude is trading at $75.65 a barrel. In the coming week, StatsSA will release data on the residential, mining and manufacturing sectors. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nasdaq.com\/articles\/south-african-rand-falls-as-u.s.-banking-fears-boost-safe-haven-demand\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Nasdaq<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Eskom exemption not feasible, De Lille sets tourism goals, IEC is under financial pressure, Joburg Mayor accused of involvement in Ponzi scheme. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":675061,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-685851","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\/685851","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=685851"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/685851\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":685883,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/685851\/revisions\/685883"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/675061"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=685851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=685851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=685851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}