{"id":761065,"date":"2024-03-18T07:59:09","date_gmt":"2024-03-18T05:59:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=761065"},"modified":"2025-01-08T16:29:31","modified_gmt":"2025-01-08T14:29:31","slug":"5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-1732","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/5-things\/761065\/5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-1732\/","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>Unbundling of Eskom taking shape:&nbsp;<\/strong>Numerous decisions were announced by energy regulator Nersa over the weekend, including those related to power purchasing agreements, generation licenses, and decisions relating to cost recovery. These indicate a big step forward in the unbundling of Eskom &#8211; particularly in the establishment and operationalising of an independent transmission company. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.moneyweb.co.za\/news\/south-africa\/ipp-contracts-amended-to-sell-to-transmission-company\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.moneyweb.co.za\/news\/south-africa\/ipp-contracts-amended-to-sell-to-transmission-company\/\" 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>Godongwana slams Nelson Mandela Bay:<\/strong>&nbsp;Political instability in Nelson Mandela Bay is in the spotlight again, with finance minister Enoch Godongwana sending a letter to its mayor slamming him for the city&#8217;s R20 billion in irregular expenditure, as well as for suspending the fraud-accused City manager for a second time, instead of taking permanent action. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.news24.com\/news24\/southafrica\/news\/godongwana-slams-nelson-mandela-bay-over-r20bn-wasteful-expenditure-top-officials-suspension-20240318\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.news24.com\/news24\/southafrica\/news\/godongwana-slams-nelson-mandela-bay-over-r20bn-wasteful-expenditure-top-officials-suspension-20240318\" 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>Rand Water warns Gauteng metros of system collapse:<\/strong>&nbsp;&nbsp;Rand Water called an emergency meeting over the weekend with officials from Johannesburg, Ekurhuleni and Tshwane to warn of a potential collapse of water systems. As a result, Tshwane immediately put in place water restrictions while the latest water crisis in Johannesburg, which started on 3 March, extended into its third week as many taps remain dry despite promises of restoration. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymaverick.co.za\/article\/2024-03-17-as-rand-water-warns-of-wider-system-collapse-soweto-and-johannesburg-taps-still-dry\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.dailymaverick.co.za\/article\/2024-03-17-as-rand-water-warns-of-wider-system-collapse-soweto-and-johannesburg-taps-still-dry\/\" 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 prepares for private sector participation:<\/strong>&nbsp;Transnet Freight Rail (TFR) is continuing its plans for rail reform, which&nbsp;includes opening up 21,200km of its network for private sector participation. This is expected to begin in April, with the company currently boasting a maintenance backlog of R31 billion and debt of R39 billion.&nbsp;[<a href=\"https:\/\/www.businesslive.co.za\/bd\/national\/2024-03-18-transnet-prepares-to-allow-third-party-access-to-rail-network\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.businesslive.co.za\/bd\/national\/2024-03-18-transnet-prepares-to-allow-third-party-access-to-rail-network\/\" 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> The&nbsp;South African rand firmed at market close on Friday after slumping the day before on a stronger U.S. dollar and mixed local data. On Monday (18 March), the rand was trading at R18.77 to the dollar, R23.87 to the pound, and R20.41 to the euro. Oil is trading at $85.65 a barrel. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/markets\/south-african-rand-little-changed-against-dollar-2024-03-15\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/markets\/south-african-rand-little-changed-against-dollar-2024-03-15\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Reuters<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Eskom unbundling taking shape; Godongwana slams Nelson Mandela Bay; Gauteng metros warned of water system collapse; and Transnet preparing for private sector participation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":667283,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20398],"tags":[18993],"class_list":["post-761065","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\/761065","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=761065"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/761065\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":761093,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/761065\/revisions\/761093"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/667283"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=761065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=761065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=761065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}