{"id":722978,"date":"2023-10-05T08:02:14","date_gmt":"2023-10-05T06:02:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=722978"},"modified":"2023-10-05T08:02:14","modified_gmt":"2023-10-05T06:02:14","slug":"5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-1623","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/722978\/5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-1623\/","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>VAT warning:&nbsp;<\/strong>Economist Azar Jammine predicts the government may be forced to increase VAT come the mid-term budget speech on 1 November. Jammine said this would be done to fund the government&#8217;s overspending, which has reached a point where interest owed on the loans it has incurred accounts for 20% of total government revenue. [<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.enca.com\/top-stories\/vat-increase-may-be-cards-south-africans\" target=\"_blank\">eNCA<\/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>Alarm bells over UIF:\u00a0<\/strong>Business (Busa) and organised labour (Cosatu) have called for the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) to be placed under immediate administration while its investments are investigated independently as the fund sinks deeper into dysfunction and suspicion of corruption grows. UIF investments, managed by Public Investment Corporation, total roughly R130 billion. However, some workers face delays or receive no benefits when trying to access unemployment or maternity leave funds. [<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.news24.com\/fin24\/economy\/anger-mounts-over-uif-chaos-as-business-labour-call-for-crackdown-20231005\" 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>Post Bank R2 billion loss:<\/strong>&nbsp;The Postbank has reported a net loss of R2 billion for the 2022\/23 financial year, according to its annual report tabled in Parliament this week, and it\u2019s lumping much of the blame for this situation on the costs associated with paying social grants. Postbank CEO, Nikki Mbengashe, said there had been intensive costs involved in ensuring that all post offices and over 1,000 payment sites had sufficient cash to make the payments, and this was not sustainable. Despite the bank\u2019s reported loss, compared to a R302 million profit last year, it noted it remains solvent given the value of its assets. [<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/ewn.co.za\/2023\/10\/05\/postbank-reports-r2-billion-loss-for-2022-23-financial-year\" 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>Things are going to get worse:<\/strong>\u00a0Economist Dawie Roodt warned that South Africans should brace for a rough ride with high inflation, a weak currency, high-interest rates, and political and financial uncertainty ahead. He noted South Africa&#8217;s private sector is reaching its limits and will soon refuse to fund the state further. This will result in inflation above 10% and the rand going to R25 or R30 to the US dollar within the next three years. [<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/dailyinvestor.com\/south-africa\/33318\/things-are-going-to-get-much-worse-in-south-africa\/\" 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>Markets<\/strong>: The rand traded slightly higher on Wednesday following several days of weakness as\u00a0the softening of the U.S. dollar\u00a0supported risk sentiment. The rand has been on a downward trajectory this week, tumbling against a buoyant dollar on Monday\u00a0and\u00a0Tuesday\u00a0to sit around 2% weaker since the start of the month. On Thursday (5 September), the rand was trading at R19.30\/$, R20.32\/\u20ac, and R23.46\/\u00a3. Brent crude is trading at $86.36 a barrel. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nasdaq.com\/articles\/south-african-rand-slightly-firms-as-us-dollar-dips\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Nasdaq<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Warning over VAT increases; calls to place the UIF under administration; Post Bank blames losses on grants contract; and economist warns of rough ride ahead. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":722990,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[853],"class_list":["post-722978","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\/722978","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=722978"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/722978\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":722998,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/722978\/revisions\/722998"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/722990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=722978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=722978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=722978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}