{"id":740227,"date":"2024-01-04T07:52:32","date_gmt":"2024-01-04T05:52:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=740227"},"modified":"2024-01-04T07:52:32","modified_gmt":"2024-01-04T05:52:32","slug":"5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-1681","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/740227\/5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-1681\/","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>South African Post Office spending double what it earns:&nbsp;<\/strong>Communications and Digital Technologies Minister Mondli Gungubele revealed that the South African Post Office (SAPO) will record an over R2 billion net loss, with operational costs set to reach 200% of revenue. [<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/dailyinvestor.com\/south-africa\/40975\/south-african-post-office-spends-twice-as-much-as-it-makes\/\" 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>Russian bank fears:\u00a0<\/strong>Jeffries, JPMorgan, Macquarie Bank, and Barclays have distanced themselves from state-owned oil company PetroSA\u2019s deal with the Russian Gazprombank to fund the Mossel Bay gas-to-liquid refinery due to ongoing US sanctions. This is causing worry that other banking ties could be threatened. [<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.businesslive.co.za\/bd\/national\/2024-01-03-gazprombank-funding-of-petrosa-refinery-could-threaten-other-banking-ties\/\" 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<\/strong> <strong>goes from bad to worse:\u00a0<\/strong>The state-owned transport group extended its money-losing streak by recording a financial loss of R1.6 billion during the six months ending September. The company will be able to draw an immediate R22.8 billion from government to deal with present challenges, including the settlement of maturing debt.\u00a0[<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymaverick.co.za\/article\/2024-01-02-transnets-critical-operation-and-financial-situation-extends-from-bad-to-worse\/\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.dailymaverick.co.za\/article\/2024-01-02-transnets-critical-operation-and-financial-situation-extends-from-bad-to-worse\/\" target=\"_blank\">Daily Maverick<\/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>Cholera outbreak worries: <\/strong>The Health department says that it is closely monitoring people re-entering the country for cholera after a number of neighbouring countries have recorded a spike in cholera cases. The health department has said that it has beefed up health screenings at borders. [<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/ewn.co.za\/2024\/01\/04\/health-dept-ups-cholera-screenings-after-outbreak-in-neighbouring-countries\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"https:\/\/ewn.co.za\/2024\/01\/04\/health-dept-ups-cholera-screenings-after-outbreak-in-neighbouring-countries\" 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>Markets:<\/strong>&nbsp; The rand has weakened, with the dollar rebounding as traders rethink their expectations of the scale of rate cuts by the Federal Reserve this year. On Thursday (4 January), the rand was trading at R18.72 to the dollar, R23.70 to the pound, and R20.45 to the euro. Oil is trading at $78.64 a barrel. [<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/markets\/currencies\/\" target=\"_blank\">Reuters<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Post office spends double its income; banks wary of SA-Russia deal; Transnet records another financial loss; Health department on high alert. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":101,"featured_media":681611,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-740227","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/740227","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\/101"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=740227"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/740227\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":740255,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/740227\/revisions\/740255"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/681611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=740227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=740227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=740227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}