{"id":752301,"date":"2024-02-16T07:59:13","date_gmt":"2024-02-16T05:59:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=752301"},"modified":"2025-01-08T16:31:47","modified_gmt":"2025-01-08T14:31:47","slug":"5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-1712","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/5-things\/752301\/5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-1712\/","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>SOEs massive bailouts:<\/strong>\u00a0A Treasury presentation to parliament this week highlighted the woeful financial records of South Africa\u2019s state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and their cost to taxpayers.\u00a0In the past three years, the government has bailed out six ailing SOEs to the tune of R281 billion &#8211; not counting an additional R24 billion for the SA National Roads Agency. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.businesslive.co.za\/bd\/opinion\/columnists\/2024-02-16-hilary-joffe-soe-bailouts-have-plunged-sa-into-debt\/\" 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>PetroSA chair&#8217;s CEO bid foiled amid fraud allegations:\u00a0<\/strong>The person who currently holds the position of chairperson at PetroSA was vying for the role of CEO; however, it has been ruled out from consideration due to an ongoing investigation by the Hawks. This is regarding a falsified court order and the chair&#8217;s inability to clear the security screening process. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.news24.com\/fin24\/companies\/petrosa-chairs-ceo-bid-foiled-amid-fraud-allegations-hawks-investigation-20240216\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.news24.com\/fin24\/companies\/petrosa-chairs-ceo-bid-foiled-amid-fraud-allegations-hawks-investigation-20240216\" 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>Court victory for Intercape:<\/strong>&nbsp;The High Court in Makhanda has issued an order that requires the South African Police Service (SAPS) and the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (DPCI) to comply with a list of requirements. The police have been instructed to investigate 165 cases of intimidation and violence against Intercape to enable the effective prosecution of each crime individually. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.moneyweb.co.za\/news\/south-africa\/another-court-victory-for-intercape\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.moneyweb.co.za\/news\/south-africa\/another-court-victory-for-intercape\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Moneyweb<\/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>Divide over possible VAT hike:\u00a0<\/strong>Tax experts are divided over the means by which the government plans to raise an additional R15 billion in revenue. Some say that increasing VAT would be the most economically efficient and least harmful way, while others say that it is unlikely, given the disproportionate effect it has on the less wealthy in the country. [<a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/budget-speech\/751446\/divide-over-vat-hike-for-south-africa\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/budget-speech\/751446\/divide-over-vat-hike-for-south-africa\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">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>Markets:<\/strong> The South African rand strengthened on Thursday as the dollar fell due to a mixed batch of U.S. economic data.\u00a0On Friday (16 February), the rand was trading at R18.97 to the dollar, R23.81 to the pound, and R20.41 to the euro. Oil is trading at $82.74 a barrel. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/africa\/south-african-rand-steady-early-trade-2024-02-15\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/africa\/south-african-rand-steady-early-trade-2024-02-15\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Reuters<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Cost of years of SOE bailouts; PetroSA&#8217;s chair CEO bid foiled; court victory for Intercape; divide over possible tax hike.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":752333,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20398],"tags":[18993],"class_list":["post-752301","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\/752301","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=752301"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/752301\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":752335,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/752301\/revisions\/752335"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/752333"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=752301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=752301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=752301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}