{"id":722218,"date":"2023-10-02T08:24:10","date_gmt":"2023-10-02T06:24:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=722218"},"modified":"2023-10-02T08:24:10","modified_gmt":"2023-10-02T06:24:10","slug":"5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-1620","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/722218\/5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-1620\/","title":{"rendered":"5 important things happening in South Africa today"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Here\u2019s 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>Signs of economic stress<\/strong>: Johannesburg has fallen from 69 to 83 on the Global Financial Centres Index, a sharp decline in its reputation as a top financial centre. Cape Town\u2019s standing dropped from 73 to 91. The index is compiled every six months by London-based think tank Z\/Yen and the China Development Institute. The index ranks 121 cities according to surveys of 147 factors, including the state of the local business environment, human capital, infrastructure, financial sector development, and reputation. [<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/dailyinvestor.com\/business\/32832\/joburg-and-cape-town-plummet-in-financial-centres-ranking\/\" target=\"_blank\">Daily Investor<\/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>Lacklustre load shedding optimism:&nbsp;<\/strong>Ramakgopa was quick to announce during his Sunday briefing that South Africa was beginning to \u201cturn the corner\u201d in dealing with load shedding following the return of Kusile unit 3. However, not so long ago, he delivered similar news about how Eskom had done a great job in not subjecting the country to higher stages of load-shedding during winter. But barely 48 hours since Ramokgopa spoke, the country was plunged into stage 6 load-shedding, with several units at various power stations breaking down almost simultaneously. The fact remains that we are still largely reliant on Eskom\u2019s old and unreliable coal fleet, which could break down at any time. [<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.timeslive.co.za\/sunday-times-daily\/opinion-and-analysis\/2023-10-01-editorial--return-of-kusile-unit-3-is-good-news-but-not-enough-to-resolve-sas-energy-supply-woes\/\" 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>Medical savings warning:<\/strong>\u00a0Discovery Health announced that four in every 10 scheme members (39%) will experience an increase in contributions of less than 4% from January 2024. However, it is also said that to achieve the sub-4% increases for some plans, it has cut the allocation to the medical savings account (MSA) from the net contribution paid by five percentage points. This means, for example, that for a main member on the Classic Saver, their MSA will drop from R12,180 this year to R10,020 next year. [<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.moneyweb.co.za\/news\/companies-and-deals\/discovery-slashes-medical-savings-accounts-on-its-most-popular-plans\/\" target=\"_blank\">Moneyweb<\/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>More Corruption<\/strong>: Transnet has fired two executives over a R33.8 million contract for thousands of disposable straws \u2013 with prices inflated from 28 cents to R29 per unit. This amounts to a nearly 10,000% markup. The SIU launched an investigation into the matter after receiving complaints from a Transnet whistleblower. [<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.news24.com\/news24\/investigations\/transnet-paid-r29-per-breathalyser-straw-instead-of-28-cents-in-r33m-tender-scandal-20231002\" 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 South African rand remained steady on Friday, little affected by statistics agency data released earlier on Thursday, which showed South Africa&#8217;s producer inflation quickened to 4.3% year-on-year in August and that the country recorded an uptick in foreign direct investment inflows. On Monday (02 September), the rand was trading at R18.94\/$, R20.02\/\u20ac, and R23.09\/\u00a3. Brent crude is trading at $92.37 a barrel. [<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/markets\/currencies\/south-african-rand-flat-ahead-producer-price-data-2023-09-28\/\" target=\"_blank\">Reuters<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>South Africa&#8217;s top financial centres take a hit; Ramakgopa is overly optimistic over load shedding; Discovery Health is cutting medical savings allocations of some schemes; and Transnet has fired two executives over corruption allegations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":682775,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[853],"class_list":["post-722218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-south-africa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/722218","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=722218"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/722218\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":722246,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/722218\/revisions\/722246"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/682775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=722218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=722218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=722218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}