{"id":727314,"date":"2023-10-26T07:59:35","date_gmt":"2023-10-26T05:59:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=727314"},"modified":"2023-10-26T07:59:35","modified_gmt":"2023-10-26T05:59:35","slug":"5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-1638","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/727314\/5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-1638\/","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>Delay two-pot retirement system:<\/strong>\u00a0The National Treasury has proposed delaying the implementation of the two-pot retirement system &#8211; which would allow people to access one-third of their pension savings before retirement &#8211; by one year until March 2025 to give the investment industry time to implement systems needed to administer the changes. [<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.news24.com\/fin24\/economy\/treasury-wants-two-pot-retirement-system-delayed-until-2025-20231025\" 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>$1 billion loan for SA:<\/strong> The World Bank has approved a $1 billion development policy loan to support electricity market reforms underway in South Africa. \u201cThis operation comes at a crucial time for South Africa as it will provide much-needed fiscal and technical support, enabling us to pursue our policy priorities in the energy sector, including easing the electricity crisis in the long term, stimulating private sector engagement and creating jobs in the renewables space,\u201d said deputy director-general for asset and liability management Mmakgoshi Lekhethe. [<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.engineeringnews.co.za\/article\/1bn-world-bank-loan-to-support-south-africas-energy-reforms-and-decarbonisation-2023-10-25\" target=\"_blank\">Engineering News<\/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><strong>Eskom in a death spiral:<\/strong><\/strong> Eskom\u2019s biggest challenge is selling less electricity due to load-shedding and South African households and businesses moving to more reliable and affordable alternatives. Experts warn that Eskom is dying as it is losing its paying customers, forcing it to increase its prices and drive even more paying customers away. [<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/dailyinvestor.com\/energy\/35508\/eskom-is-dying\/\" 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>R120 billion nursing problem:&nbsp;<\/strong>A new academic study of medical malpractice in South Africa has revealed startling sums to be paid for this from the public purse and highlights alarming shortcomings in the nursing profession. Part of the study reveals that, over 11 years, nursing malpractice has led to three provinces\u2019 health departments being sued for R120 billion. [<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.businesslive.co.za\/fm\/fm-fox\/2023-10-26-bad-nursing-a-r120bn-problem\/\" target=\"_blank\">Financial Mail<\/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>&nbsp;South Africa&#8217;s rand edged lower against a stronger dollar on Wednesday, taking global direction in the absence of local data. &#8220;There are new and meaningful two-way pressures on USD\/ZAR, but it seems happy at around or just over the 19.00 level,&#8221; said Rand Merchant Bank analysts. On Wednesday (25 October), the rand was trading at R19.20 to the dollar, R23.20 to the pound and R20.25 to the euro. Oil is trading at $89.91 a barrel. [<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/markets\/south-african-rand-slightly-stronger-against-muted-dollar-2023-10-25\/\" target=\"_blank\">Reuters<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Treasury wants to delay the two-pot retirement system; World Bank grants a $1 billion loan; Eskom is in a death spiral; and South Africa faces a nursing competency problem.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":642499,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[853],"class_list":["post-727314","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\/727314","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=727314"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/727314\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":727322,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/727314\/revisions\/727322"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/642499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=727314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=727314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=727314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}