{"id":691049,"date":"2023-05-25T08:22:32","date_gmt":"2023-05-25T06:22:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=691049"},"modified":"2023-05-25T08:22:32","modified_gmt":"2023-05-25T06:22:32","slug":"5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-1533","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/691049\/5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-1533\/","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>It could be worse<\/strong>: Ninety One CEO Hendrik du Toit says South Africa&#8217;s financial woes could be far worse than they are now, noting that the increase in bond yields was far worse in other countries. For example, the USA hiked interest rates by a factor of 10. If that happened in South Africa, interest rates would rise to 100%. Although several American banks were decimated by the sell-off in bonds, local financial services are used to high-interest rates with inflation embedded in the economy. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.businesslive.co.za\/fm\/money-and-investing\/2023-05-25-south-africa-is-down-but-not-out-says-hendrik-du-toit\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Business Day<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Nampak&#8217;s changes<\/strong>: Nampak&#8217;s interim CEO Phil Roux says the group will introduce many new changes as it battles a debt pile worth nearly ten times its market value. Roux said the group would reduce staff and make major salary cuts. The company added that it would opt for a significantly-reduced rights issue of up to R1 billion, roughly half of what it flagged last year &#8211; which saw its shares rise by almost double digits. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.news24.com\/fin24\/companies\/nampak-cannot-and-simply-wont-fail-says-new-ceo-as-he-grapples-with-crippling-r59bn-debt-pile-20230524\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">News24<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Water warning<\/strong>: The City of Ekurhuleni says residents in several areas will face water outages this week as Rand Water conducts maintenance on the water network. The water outages will last from Friday evening (26 May) to Monday (29 May). The affected areas will include Duduza, Nigel, Springs, KwaThema and Brakpan. The city will supply water tankers to affected areas but is requesting that residents store backup water. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.timeslive.co.za\/news\/south-africa\/2023-05-25-map--massive-outage-in-ekurhuleni-this-week-here-are-the-areas-affected-and-where-to-get-water\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">TimesLive<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Tshwane&#8217;s money problem<\/strong>: Tshwane Mayor Cilliers Brink says the metro cannot afford to finish the refurbishment of its biggest wastewater treatment plant. Brink said that the metro can only pay R150 million, despite the estimated R2.5 billion cost. This comes in the midst of a Cholera outbreak in the Hammanskraal region, where the death toll currently stands at 17. Although certain refurbishments were supposed to be completed in 2022, a more than R250 million tender was cancelled due to failures from the developer.\u00a0 [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.news24.com\/news24\/politics\/government\/cholera-in-the-capital-we-lack-resources-and-expertise-tshwane-mayor-cilliers-brink-20230525-2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">News24<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Markets<\/strong>: South Africa&#8217;s rand slipped against a stronger dollar on Wednesday as investors turned their focus to the central bank&#8217;s rate decision due later today. Despite consumer Price Inflation easing to 6.8% in April, Andrew Matheny from Goldman Sachs said that the SARB will still likely hike interest rates in response to exchange rate weakness.\u00a0On Thursday (25 May), the rand was trading at R19.30\/$, R20.72\/\u20ac, and R23.82\/\u00a3. Brent crude is trading at $78.17 a barrel. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nasdaq.com\/articles\/south-african-rand-slips-with-focus-on-rate-decision\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Nasdaq<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>South Africa&#8217;s financial woes could be worse, Nampak introducing sweeping changes, Ekurhuleni water outage, Tshwane&#8217;s wastewater problem. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":653859,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-691049","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\/691049","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=691049"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/691049\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":691081,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/691049\/revisions\/691081"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/653859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=691049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=691049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=691049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}