{"id":754063,"date":"2024-02-22T07:53:18","date_gmt":"2024-02-22T05:53:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=754063"},"modified":"2024-08-19T16:59:26","modified_gmt":"2024-08-19T14:59:26","slug":"5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-1716","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/5-things\/754063\/5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-1716\/","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>Inflation picks up: <\/strong>South Africa&#8217;s headline consumer inflation quickened to 5.3% year on year in January from 5.1% in December, data showed on Wednesday. Key contributors to the annual inflation rate included food, housing, utilities and transport. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/africa\/south-african-inflation-picks-up-january-2024-02-21\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/africa\/south-african-inflation-picks-up-january-2024-02-21\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Reuters<\/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>Nelson Mandela Bay faces \u2018devastating\u2019 loss of R542 million in grant\u00a0funding:<\/strong> The Executive Mayor of Nelson Mandela Bay, Gary van Niekerk, held a last-minute meeting of his mayoral committee on February 19th due to the risk of losing R542 million as a result of &#8220;severe underspending&#8221; of grants. Although an action plan was understood to have been created during the meeting, no specifics about the plan have been shared publicly. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymaverick.co.za\/article\/2024-02-21-incompetent-mayor-nelson-mandela-bay-faces-devastating-loss-of-r542m-in-grant-funding\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.dailymaverick.co.za\/article\/2024-02-21-incompetent-mayor-nelson-mandela-bay-faces-devastating-loss-of-r542m-in-grant-funding\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">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>Transnet creditors pressing government for a bailout:\u00a0<\/strong>During a pre-budget media briefing on Wednesday, Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana stated that state-owned logistics company Transnet would need to service its current debt before receiving any bailout funds from the Treasury. Creditors of the company are urging for a bailout, but the likelihood of a bailout is uncertain until the debt is paid off.\u00a0[<a href=\"https:\/\/www.businesslive.co.za\/bd\/national\/2024-02-21-transnet-creditors-are-pressing-government-for-a-bailout-says-godongwana\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.businesslive.co.za\/bd\/national\/2024-02-21-transnet-creditors-are-pressing-government-for-a-bailout-says-godongwana\/\">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>First democratic court judges impeached: <\/strong>Two High Court judges, Judge President John Hlophe and  Judge Nkola Motata, were removed from the Bench late on Wednesday after two-thirds of members of parliament (MPs) in the National Assembly voted in support of a Justice and Constitutional Development portfolio committee report that endorsed gross misconduct findings made against them. They are the first judges in democratic South Africa to have been impeached. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.news24.com\/news24\/politics\/parliament\/hlophe-becomes-first-judge-in-sa-history-to-be-impeached-stripped-of-salary-for-life-20240221\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.news24.com\/news24\/politics\/parliament\/hlophe-becomes-first-judge-in-sa-history-to-be-impeached-stripped-of-salary-for-life-20240221\" 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>Markets:<\/strong>&nbsp;The South African slipped slightly at the close of Wednesday, after it had initially firmed following the finance minister&#8217;s budget speech. On Thursday (22 February), the rand was trading at R18.93 to the dollar, R23.87 to the pound, and R20.41 to the euro. Oil is trading at $83.22 a barrel. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/africa\/south-african-rand-weakens-traders-cautious-ahead-budget-2024-02-20\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Reuters<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Inflation picks up; Nelson Mandela Bay faces massive grant cut; Transnet creditiors want a government bailout; two judges impeached by parliament.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":101,"featured_media":663715,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20398],"tags":[18993],"class_list":["post-754063","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\/754063","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=754063"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/754063\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":754077,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/754063\/revisions\/754077"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/663715"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=754063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=754063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=754063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}