{"id":743717,"date":"2024-01-19T07:50:45","date_gmt":"2024-01-19T05:50:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=743717"},"modified":"2024-01-19T07:50:45","modified_gmt":"2024-01-19T05:50:45","slug":"5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-1692","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/743717\/5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-1692\/","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>Eskom rejects Mozambique\u2019s power offer:&nbsp;<\/strong>South Africa&#8217;s embattled state-owned power utility has rejected Mozambique energy company Electricidade de Mo\u00e7ambique\u2019s (EDM\u2019s) offer to sell 100 megawatts of electricity to the country, citing high tariffs. [<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/mg.co.za\/the-green-guardian\/2024-01-18-eskom-rejects-mozambiques-power-offer\/\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"https:\/\/mg.co.za\/the-green-guardian\/2024-01-18-eskom-rejects-mozambiques-power-offer\/\" 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><strong>82.9% NSC pass rate<\/strong> &#8211; but concerns remain:\u00a0<\/strong>691,690 candidates wrote the 2023 National Senior Certificate (NSC) exams through public schools, achieving an overall pass rate of 82.9%, which is 2.8% higher than the pass rate achieved in 2022. However, education experts and civil society groups are concerned that more than 450,000 learners who started Grade 1 with last year\u2019s cohort of matrics did not make it to Grade 12. [<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/743573\/south-africas-real-matric-pass-rate-is-only-55\/\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/743573\/south-africas-real-matric-pass-rate-is-only-55\/\" target=\"_blank\">BusinessTech<\/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>Company tries to recover R50m \u2018disguised&nbsp;donation\u2019 to ANC:<\/strong>&nbsp;Liquidators of the embattled Regiments Capital have taken the African National Congress to court in a bid to recover R50 million that the company channelled to the party in 2016. [<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymaverick.co.za\/article\/2024-01-18-liquidators-go-after-anc-and-regiments-capital-owners-to-recover-r50m-disguised-donation\/\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.dailymaverick.co.za\/article\/2024-01-18-liquidators-go-after-anc-and-regiments-capital-owners-to-recover-r50m-disguised-donation\/\" 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>PioTrans relaunches amid legal turmoil:&nbsp;<\/strong>After weeks of legal battles and a court-ordered intervention, Johannesburg\u2019s Rea Vaya bus operator, PioTrans, has recommenced operations. In December, the Rea Vaya operator was placed under business rescue after creditors tried to seize buses due to its outstanding debt. [<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.citizen.co.za\/news\/south-africa\/local-news\/piotrans-relaunches-amid-legal-turmoil\/\" target=\"_blank\">The Citizen<\/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 strengthened on Thursday after monthly mining figures showed an increase in production. On Friday (19 January), the rand was trading at R18.93 to the dollar, R24.10 to the pound, and R20.58 to the euro. Oil is trading at $78.99 a barrel. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nasdaq.com\/articles\/south-african-rand-firms-as-mining-output-rises\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.nasdaq.com\/articles\/south-african-rand-firms-as-mining-output-rises\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Nasdaq<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Eskom turns down Mozambique&#8217;s electricity offer; matric pass rate improves, but concerns remain; company takes ANC to court over donation; Piotrans relaunches.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":101,"featured_media":721110,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[18993,853],"class_list":["post-743717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today","tag-south-africa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/743717","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=743717"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/743717\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":743761,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/743717\/revisions\/743761"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/721110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=743717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=743717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=743717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}