{"id":727082,"date":"2023-10-25T08:06:06","date_gmt":"2023-10-25T06:06:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=727082"},"modified":"2023-10-25T08:06:06","modified_gmt":"2023-10-25T06:06:06","slug":"5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-1637","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/727082\/5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-1637\/","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>Good news for Medupi:<\/strong>&nbsp;Electricity generation in the country will receive a significant boost next year with the earlier-than-expected return to service of Medupi unit 4. Minister of Electricity Kgosientsho Ramokgopa said an interim solution had been found to expedite the return to service of Medupi Unit 4 by April next year instead of August, adding another 800MW of baseload to the grid ahead of winter. [<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.businesslive.co.za\/bd\/national\/2023-10-24-medupi-unit-4-to-return-to-service-earlier-than-scheduled\/\" target=\"_blank\">BusinessDay<\/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>Transnet begs for money:<\/strong>&nbsp;Transnet is seeking more than R100 billion from the Treasury over the next two years, according to the turnaround plan produced by the board. The plan proposes that the Treasury take over a minimum of R61 billion of its debt and provide R47 billion in an equity injection or a subordinated loan that can be converted to equity should it meet performance targets. [<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.news24.com\/fin24\/companies\/transnet-to-lean-on-treasury-for-r100bn-turnaround-plan-20231025\" 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>Budget deficit cover-up:<\/strong> Wits University\u2019s Professor Alex van den Heever said South Africa\u2019s fiscal crisis has likely been exaggerated, and austerity measures serve to cover up government corruption and mismanagement. &#8220;The government has failed to address the underlying causes for revenue shortfalls and the wastage of government expenditures \u2013 reinforcing, supporting, and accepting corruption in the state,\u201d he said. [<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/dailyinvestor.com\/south-africa\/35216\/south-africas-fiscal-crisis-exaggerated-to-cover-up-corruption-and-mismanagement-professor\/\" 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>Eskom warns communities:&nbsp;<\/strong>Eskom has warned communities that have benefited from the installation of new transformers in Gauteng that if illegal connections cause its devices to fail, chances of the power utility replacing the device will be slim. Residents, on the other hand, are wondering where will they get the money to pay for the electricity as they are unemployed. [<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.timeslive.co.za\/sunday-times-daily\/news\/2023-10-24-we-wont-install-new-transformers-if-you-illegally-connect-again-eskom-warns-communities\/\" target=\"_blank\">Times Live<\/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> South Africa&#8217;s rand fell on Tuesday as&nbsp;the dollar strengthened&nbsp;following fresh economic data, which highlighted the strength of the U.S. economy. U.S. data showed&nbsp;business output ticked higher in October as the manufacturing sector pulled out of a five-month contraction. On Wednesday (25 October), the rand was trading at R19.01 to the dollar, R23.15 to the pound and R20.16 to the euro. Oil is trading at $87.94 a barrel. [<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/africa\/south-african-rand-gains-ahead-leading-indicator-2023-10-24\/\" target=\"_blank\">Reuters<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Earlier return to service of Medupi unit 4; Transnet&#8217;s turnaround plan is more of taxpayers&#8217; money; fiscal crisis and austerity measures serve as a cover-up; and Eskom warns communities of consequences of illegal connections.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":641753,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[26,853],"class_list":["post-727082","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-headline","tag-south-africa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/727082","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=727082"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/727082\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":727090,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/727082\/revisions\/727090"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/641753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=727082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=727082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=727082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}