{"id":758559,"date":"2024-03-08T08:05:33","date_gmt":"2024-03-08T06:05:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=758559"},"modified":"2024-08-19T16:58:54","modified_gmt":"2024-08-19T14:58:54","slug":"5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-1726","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/5-things\/758559\/5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-1726\/","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>Pravin Gordhan announces retirement from politics:<\/strong> Public enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan has revealed that he will retire from active politics at the end of the sixth administration. In an interview with Business Day, Gordhan shared his desire to prioritise his family and health, saying that he would no longer be available to be on the ANC\u2019s party list of electoral candidates.&nbsp;[<a href=\"https:\/\/www.businesslive.co.za\/bd\/politics\/2024-03-08-exclusive-pravin-gordhan-announces-retirement-from-politics\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.businesslive.co.za\/bd\/politics\/2024-03-08-exclusive-pravin-gordhan-announces-retirement-from-politics\/\" 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>Eskom&#8217;s major morale problem:\u00a0<\/strong>Eskom\u2019s staff are frustrated and unmotivated and work in an environment characterised by indifference, ignorance, and blame-shifting.\u00a0This is feedback from the German consultancy group VGBE Energy, which the National Treasury commissioned to recommend how Eskom can improve its performance. [<a href=\"https:\/\/dailyinvestor.com\/energy\/46068\/eskom-has-severe-employee-problems\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">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>Threats of litigation over bill could impact poll date:<\/strong>\u00a0Opposition parties are calling for discussions among parties to avoid potential legal action against the Electoral Matters Amendment Bill, which alters the funding formula for political parties and independents represented in legislatures. If discussions among parties are unsuccessful, it could lead to court challenges, which may impact the 2024 election date. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymaverick.co.za\/article\/2024-03-07-controversial-election-legislation-rushed-through-parliament-may-head-to-court-if-proposed-11th-hour-talks-fail\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.dailymaverick.co.za\/article\/2024-03-07-controversial-election-legislation-rushed-through-parliament-may-head-to-court-if-proposed-11th-hour-talks-fail\/\" 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>Bheki Cele<\/strong><strong>ordered to pay R93 million in damages:<\/strong>\u00a0The Minister of Police, Bheki Cele, was found vicariously liable and ordered by the Pretoria High Court to pay R93 million in damages to the underwriters of Nedbank, whose money was stolen by members of the police service in 2014. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.businesslive.co.za\/bd\/national\/2024-03-07-bheki-cele-on-the-hook-for-r93m-after-police-aided-cash-heist\/\" 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>Markets:<\/strong>\u00a0The rand firmed on Thursday against a weaker U.S. dollar after the U.S. Federal Reserve Chair suggested likely rate cuts. On Friday (8 March), the rand was trading at R\u00a018.71 to the dollar, R23.92 to the pound, and R20.49 to the euro. Oil is trading at $83.43 a barrel. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/markets\/south-african-rand-firms-against-weaker-dollar-2024-03-07\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/markets\/south-african-rand-firms-against-weaker-dollar-2024-03-07\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Reuters<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Gordhan announces retirement from politics; Eskom employees are frustrated and demotivated; threats of litigation could impact poll date; and Cele ordered to pay millions in damages. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":101,"featured_media":644645,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20398],"tags":[18993,19547,84],"class_list":["post-758559","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-5-things","tag-5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today","tag-bheki-cele","tag-pravin-gordhan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/758559","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=758559"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/758559\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":758573,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/758559\/revisions\/758573"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/644645"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=758559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=758559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=758559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}