{"id":732135,"date":"2023-11-20T07:53:09","date_gmt":"2023-11-20T05:53:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=732135"},"modified":"2023-11-20T07:53:09","modified_gmt":"2023-11-20T05:53:09","slug":"5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-1655","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/732135\/5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-1655\/","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>Transnet buying guns:<\/strong> Transnet Freight Rail (TFR) aims to issue a tender by next month for procuring ammunition, including handguns and longer-range weapons, for its internal security personnel amid growing frustration over rising cable theft and vandalism of its infrastructure. [<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.businesslive.co.za\/bd\/national\/2023-11-20-exclusive-transnet-freight-rail-to-issue-tender-to-buy-guns-to-curb-cable-theft\/\" target=\"_blank\">Business Day<\/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>Transmission expansion:<\/strong> The government is making progress on its plans to urgently upgrade SA&#8217;s energy infrastructure, with Cabinet having signed off on plans to use part of the $12.5 billion (R225 billion) in financing commitments from the Just Energy Transition Investment (JET-IP), Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa said on Sunday. He noted priority areas have been identified as both transmission and distribution. [<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.news24.com\/fin24\/economy\/govt-making-strides-against-power-transmission-crunch-says-ramokgopa-20231119\" 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>Kidnapping for ransom:<\/strong> Kidnapping for ransom in South Africa has surged by over 76% between July and September 2023 alone. Experts say criminals are treating abduction and extortion as a business transaction as there has been a noticeable increase in the number of wealthy individuals insuring against it. [<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/mg.co.za\/news\/2023-11-19-kidnapping-for-ransom-surges-in-south-africa\/\" target=\"_blank\">Mail &amp; Guardian<\/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>Voter registration:<\/strong>&nbsp;More than a million registrations were recorded at the Electoral Commission of South Africa&#8217;s (IEC) voting stations on Saturday, with 609,000 more registrations on Sunday. Gauteng recorded the most of these transactions, with 120,294, followed by the Eastern Cape with 118,574, KwaZulu-Natal with 108,878, Limpopo with 82,408, Mpumalanga with 44,694, the North West with 42,375, Free State with 38,860, the Western Cape with 37,921 and Northern Cape with 15,443. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.news24.com\/news24\/politics\/political-parties\/more-than-a-million-people-registered-to-vote-according-to-iec-20231120\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">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:&nbsp;<\/strong>The South African rand weakened on Friday as investors awaited a review of South Africa&#8217;s sovereign credit ratings by S&amp;P Global. S&amp;P Global Ratings affirmed South Africa&#8217;s credit ratings and maintained a \u201cBB-\/B\u201d rating with a stable outlook. On Monday (20 November), the rand was trading at R18.26 to the dollar, R22.80 to the pound and R19.95 to the euro. Oil is trading at $81.30 a barrel. [<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/africa\/south-african-rand-steady-ahead-credit-rating-review-2023-11-17\/\" target=\"_blank\">Reuters<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Transnet is looking to buy guns amid rampant theft; Ramokgopa says grid expansion is progressing; kidnapping a growing problem in SA; and voter registrations surpassed expectations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":732169,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[853],"class_list":["post-732135","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\/732135","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=732135"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/732135\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":732175,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/732135\/revisions\/732175"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/732169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=732135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=732135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=732135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}