{"id":733365,"date":"2023-11-24T07:45:39","date_gmt":"2023-11-24T05:45:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=733365"},"modified":"2023-11-24T07:45:39","modified_gmt":"2023-11-24T05:45:39","slug":"5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-1659","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/733365\/5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-1659\/","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>Rand manipulation exaggeration:<\/strong>\u00a0While the manipulation of the rand led to significant profits for the banks and companies involved, claims that they profited R1 trillion a day and impacted the long-term value of the currency are wildly overstated. TreasuryOne director and currency risk strategist Andre Cilliers said banks should not be exonerated of wrongdoing, but South Africans must be realistic about the rand manipulation&#8217;s impact. [<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/dailyinvestor.com\/finance\/38593\/rand-manipulation-effects-overblown-expert\/\" 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>Billions in potholes:<\/strong>\u00a0The National Department of Transport (DoT) spent in excess of\u00a0R3.65 billion\u00a0over the last six months repairing the country\u2019s crumbling roads. This is only roughly 29% of the total Provincial Roads Maintenance Grant of\u00a0R12.7 billion. [<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/topauto.co.za\/features\/92394\/how-much-money-government-spent-fixing-potholes-in-the-last-6-months\/\" target=\"_blank\">TopAuto<\/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>SARS forced to pay:<\/strong>&nbsp; The high court in Pretoria has ruled that SARS must honour the last leg of a three-year wage deal signed with unions in 2019 and pay CPI plus 2% to its members. The ruling is a blow to SARS, as it argued it can&#8217;t afford it and is facing a funding shortfall of about R20 billion over the next three years. [<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.businesslive.co.za\/bd\/national\/2023-11-24-high-court-orders-sars-to-implement-final-part-of-three-year-wage-agreement\/\" 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>Port crisis threatens clothing lines:<\/strong>&nbsp;Mr Price says port instability could affect the local clothing industry&#8217;s autumn lines if delays persist. There have been a host of problems at SA&#8217;s ports, in particular, Durban, with some 71,000 containers stuck outside that entry point earlier this week. SA retailers are increasingly looking to local manufacturing for clothing needs, but most fabric still comes from overseas. [<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.news24.com\/fin24\/companies\/port-woes-could-hit-sas-autumn-fashion-lines-warns-mr-price-20231124\" 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:&nbsp;<\/strong>The South African rand was stronger on Thursday after the central bank maintained its key interest rate amid high inflation. On Friday (24 November), the rand was trading at R18.82 to the dollar, R23.61 to the pound and R20.53 to the euro. Oil is trading at $81.34 a barrel. [<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/africa\/south-african-rand-gains-after-central-bank-keeps-rate-unchanged-2023-11-23\/\" target=\"_blank\">Reuters<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The effects of the rand manipulation are exaggerated; Billions spent on fixing potholes; Port woes could hit SA&#8217;s autumn fashion lines; High court orders SARS to pay wage increase.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":731333,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[853],"class_list":["post-733365","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\/733365","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=733365"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/733365\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":733383,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/733365\/revisions\/733383"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/731333"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=733365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=733365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=733365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}