{"id":703993,"date":"2023-07-14T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-07-14T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=703993"},"modified":"2023-07-14T08:12:32","modified_gmt":"2023-07-14T06:12:32","slug":"5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-1568","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/energy\/703993\/5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-1568\/","title":{"rendered":"5 important things happening in South Africa today"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Here&#8217;s what is happening in and affecting South Africa today:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Another Eskom problem:<\/strong> The declining use of Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) at Eskom&#8217;s coal-fired power stations has exacerbated the current energy crisis. Despite OEMs being involved in the original design and build of the power stations, Eskom said that they now charge exorbitant prices and do not provide the previous level of service. However, Silas Zimu, a special adviser to electricity minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa,&nbsp;said that the energy crisis cannot be resolved without OEMs. [<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.businesslive.co.za\/bd\/national\/2023-07-14-eskom-crisis-worsened-by-not-using-original-equipment-manufacturers\/\" target=\"_blank\">Business Day<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Joburg power trips<\/strong>: Many suburbs in Johannesburg are plunged into darkness after a bout of load shedding ends. City Power said that heavy appliances, such as geysers, stoves, and heaters, cause the a technical glitch on its network, leading to the outages. The utility has asked residents to unplug these devices 15 minutes before power restoration and to only plug them back in 15 minutes after power is returned as it allows the grid to stabilise. [<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.timeslive.co.za\/news\/south-africa\/2023-07-14-why-joburg-suburbs-are-plunged-into-darkness-after-load-shedding\/\" target=\"_blank\">TimesLive<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Zuma loses in court<\/strong>: The Constitutional Court has upheld a ruling by the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) that said former President Jacob Zuma must return to prison. The ruling set aside former Correctional Services Commissioner Arthur Fraser\u2019s decision to allow Zuma to go on medical parole. The SCA said that acting Commissioner Makgothi Thobakgale must decide if Zuma&#8217;s time spent on medical parole will count towards his sentence, but, in the meantime, he must return to prison. [<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/ewn.co.za\/2023\/07\/13\/concourt-dismisses-bid-to-overturn-sca-ruling-that-zuma-must-return-to-prison\" target=\"_blank\">EWN<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Public Protector still suspended<\/strong>: The Constitutional Court also overturned the Western Cape High Court&#8217;s ruling that the suspension of Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane by President Cyril Ramaphosa was invalid. The apex court said that the suspension was warranted as the public would be concerned about the integrity of the Office of the Public Protector if the incumbent remained in their position while being investigated. [<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.news24.com\/news24\/politics\/parliament\/only-possible-rational-outcome-was-for-ramaphosa-to-suspend-mkhwebane-says-concourt-20230714\" target=\"_blank\">News24<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Markets<\/strong>: The rand made strong gains on Thursday, dropping below R18.00\/$ &#8211; the lowest it has been in three months. The dollar continued to weaken against global markets after slower-than-expected inflation data was released, signalling that the Federal Reserve may pause interest rate hikes after this month. On Friday (14 July), the rand was trading at R17.94\/$, R20.15\/\u20ac, and R23.55\/\u00a3. Brent crude is trading at $81.26 a barrel. [<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/markets\/currencies\/south-african-rand-little-changed-before-mining-data-2023-07-13\/\" target=\"_blank\">Reuters<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Eskom&#8217;s OEM problem; Joburg power trips; Zuma must go back to jail; Public Protector to remain suspended. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":700073,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9874],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-703993","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-energy","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703993","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=703993"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703993\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":704031,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703993\/revisions\/704031"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/700073"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=703993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=703993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=703993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}