Here\u2019s what is happening in and affecting South Africa today:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Price inflation warning:<\/strong> The Road Freight Association has warned that the latest record price hikes will impact the prices of food and other consumer goods. The association added that poor road conditions are also increasing maintenance costs. “We are going to pay more for the things that are transported by road, that’s just the nature of things,” said the association’s Gavin Kelly. [eNCA<\/a>]<\/p>\n\n\n\n Budget cuts not the right move:<\/strong> Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana is expected to announce cuts in the already hollowed-out provincial budgets in areas of health, education and criminal justice when he presents the mini budget in October. However, Michael Sachs, from Wits University\u2019s Public Economy Project and a former head of the Treasury\u2019s budget office, said if we [the government] defunds these things, it will undermine the growth of the economy and undermine the development of society. The Institute for Economic Justice (IEJ) added that the poor will suffer disproportionately, while increasing demands will be made on a shrinking tax base. [Daily Maverick<\/a>]<\/p>\n\n\n\n Deregulate petrol price:<\/strong> Fuel retailers say they would welcome a government review of the fuel pricing methodology after years of inaction. However, Fuel Retailers\u2019 Association CEO Reggie Sibiya said there has been talk of changing the methodology for calculating retail margins by applying a maximum price instead of a regulated one, which he believes will hurt the industry. He said a better option would be to deregulate petrol sales, as is the case for diesel, which would enable fuel retailers to determine their margin based on input costs. [Business Day<\/a>]<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pick n Pay<\/strong> founder dies:<\/strong> Pick n Pay founder and retail visionary Raymond Ackerman has died at the age of 92. He is survived by his wife, children, 12 grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren. Raymond Ackerman founded Pick n Pay in 1967 after buying four stores in Cape Town. Today, the Pick n Pay Group serves millions of customers in more than 2,000 stores across South Africa and Africa. [BusinessTech<\/a>]<\/p>\n\n\n\n Markets<\/strong>: The South African rand weakened on Wednesday as the country continued to be battered by its worst rolling blackouts on record and as markets moved away from riskier assets. “The rand has struggled for any traction through the first half of the week,” said Danny Greeff of ETM Analytics, as sentiment towards riskier currencies like the rand soured. On Thursday (7 September), the rand was trading at R19.26\/USD, R20.64\/EUR and R24.07\/GBP. Oil is trading at $90.31 a barrel. (Reuters<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Road Freight Association warns of prices hikes; Pushback against expected budget cuts; Fuel Retailers\u2019 Association welcomes a review of the fuel pricing – with some caveats; and Pick n Pay founder and retail visionary Raymond Ackerman has died.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":643133,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[853],"class_list":["post-716696","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-south-africa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/716696","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=716696"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/716696\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":716728,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/716696\/revisions\/716728"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/643133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=716696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=716696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=716696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n