{"id":751862,"date":"2024-02-15T07:56:11","date_gmt":"2024-02-15T05:56:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=751862"},"modified":"2024-08-19T16:59:42","modified_gmt":"2024-08-19T14:59:42","slug":"5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-1711","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/5-things\/751862\/5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-1711\/","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>SIU describes National Lotteries Commission as a criminal enterprise:<\/strong>\u00a0Head of the Special Investigating Unit (SIU), Andy Mothibi, accused the National Lotteries Commission of being a criminal enterprise and claimed that his three-year-long investigation revealed collusion worth at least R1.4 billion between lottery officials, former board members, lawyers, and non-profit organizations. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ewn.co.za\/2024\/02\/14\/national-lotteries-commission-a-criminal-enterprise-sius-mothibi-tells-mps\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.ewn.co.za\/2024\/02\/14\/national-lotteries-commission-a-criminal-enterprise-sius-mothibi-tells-mps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">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>Treasury cracks down on Tshwane and Joburg<\/strong>:\u00a0The National Treasury has cracked down on Tshwane and Johannesburg by notifying both municipalities of its intention to cut a combined R1.83 billion for grants over noncompliance and underperformance. This signals that the treasury is getting tough on errant municipalities ahead of 2024\u2019s budget presentation. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.businesslive.co.za\/bd\/national\/2024-02-14-joburg-stands-to-lose-r12bn-in-conditional-grants-from-national-treasury\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.businesslive.co.za\/bd\/national\/2024-02-14-joburg-stands-to-lose-r12bn-in-conditional-grants-from-national-treasury\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">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>New Eskom CEO <\/strong><strong>avails himself <\/strong><strong>to NPA <\/strong><strong>amid corruption allegations:\u00a0<\/strong>Eskom&#8217;s current CEO is open to talking to the National Prosecuting Authority regarding allegations of corruption with engineering firm ABB at Kusile Power Station. The former acting Eskom boss sought to divert the blame from himself and claimed that the incumbent had the real authority over the deals. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.news24.com\/fin24\/economy\/new-eskom-ceo-on-kokos-kusile-corruption-claims-i-am-available-to-the-npa-20240215\" 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>Ramaphosa to deliver response to SONA debate<\/strong>: President Cyril Ramaphosa will deliver his reply to the debate on his State of the Nation Address (SONA) today. This follows two days of fierce debate from opposition parties, who accused the president (among other things) of hypocrisy for not dealing with corruption allegations against cabinet ministers. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sabcnews.com\/sabcnews\/ramaphosa-to-deliver-response-to-sona-debate\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.sabcnews.com\/sabcnews\/ramaphosa-to-deliver-response-to-sona-debate\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">SABC<\/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>\u00a0The South African rand firmed on Wednesday after the release of December retail sales figures, having weakened more than 1% against the dollar the day before. On Thursday (15 February), the rand was trading at R19.08 to the dollar, R23.92 to the pound, and R20.49 to the euro. Oil is trading at $81.21 a barrel. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/africa\/south-african-rand-firms-ahead-retail-sales-2024-02-14\/#:~:text=JOHANNESBURG%2C%20Feb%2014%20(Reuters),stronger%20than%20its%20previous%20close.\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/africa\/south-african-rand-firms-ahead-retail-sales-2024-02-14\/#:~:text=JOHANNESBURG%2C%20Feb%2014%20(Reuters),stronger%20than%20its%20previous%20close.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Reuters<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SIU calls lottery commission a &#8216;criminal enterprise&#8217;; treasury cracks down on Joburg and Tshwane; New Eskom CEO avails himself to talk with NPA; Ramaphosa to deliver response to SONA debate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":101,"featured_media":657279,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20398],"tags":[18993],"class_list":["post-751862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-5-things","tag-5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/751862","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=751862"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/751862\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":751894,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/751862\/revisions\/751894"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/657279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=751862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=751862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=751862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}