{"id":768804,"date":"2024-04-22T08:02:00","date_gmt":"2024-04-22T06:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=768804"},"modified":"2024-08-19T16:57:30","modified_gmt":"2024-08-19T14:57:30","slug":"5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-1754","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/5-things\/768804\/5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-1754\/","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>Numsa demanding above-inflation <strong>wage<\/strong><\/strong> <strong>increase:<\/strong> The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) has urged its members in the steel sector to stay prepared as it negotiates wage increases with employers. During initial talks, Numsa, South Africa&#8217;s largest trade union, demanded 7% wage increases for the first year and 6% for the subsequent two years, aiming for adjustments above the inflation rate. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.businesslive.co.za\/bd\/national\/labour\/2024-04-21-numsa-demands-above-inflation-wage-increase-in-steel-sector\/\" 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>Tshwane looking to axe officials:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/beyondwords.io\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><\/a>The City of Tshwane plans to appeal the disciplinary process outcome that found five officials guilty of gross negligence in awarding a multimillion tender for the Rooiwal Wastewater Treatment Plant to businessman Edwin Sodi, facing corruption charges. Despite the disciplinary board&#8217;s recommendation for a one-month suspension without pay, the city disagrees and has placed the officials on precautionary suspension with full pay while pursuing stricter sanctions through the labour court. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymaverick.co.za\/article\/2024-04-21-city-of-tshwane-seeks-dismissal-of-officials-charged-in-r295m-rooiwal-tender-scandal\/\" 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>SA arms manufacturers cut corners:<\/strong>\u00a0South African arms companies are profiting from unauthorised contracts with the Democratic Republic of Congo&#8217;s defence department, bypassing numerous regulatory procedures. Despite lacking official clearance, these companies are understood to be selling weapons, including facilitating the sale of Chinese drones and missiles. This occurs while South African troops are deployed in the DRC as part of a regional stability effort. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.businesslive.co.za\/bd\/national\/2024-04-22-corners-cut-as-sa-arms-dealers-see-opportunity-in-drc\/\" 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>SAA looking for money: <\/strong>Interim chairman of South African Airways (SAA), Derek Hanekom, said that the airline is looking for potential minority investors and access to capital markets and loan financing for more rapid expansion following the collapse of a previous equity deal. [<a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/768802\/saa-is-looking-for-investors-and-loans\/\" 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>&nbsp;&nbsp;South Africa&#8217;s rand firmed on Friday after a day of volatile trading, as the U.S. dollar gave up its gains at the tail end of last week. On Monday (22 April), the rand was trading at R19.10 to the dollar, R23.64 to the pound, and R20.36 to the euro. Oil is trading at $86.53 a barrel. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/markets\/risk-sensitive-south-african-rand-weakens-geopolitical-tensions-bite-2024-04-19\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Reuters<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Numsa calling for steel sector wage hikes; Tshwane to dismiss officials in tainted tender; unapproved SA arms manufacturers coining it in the DRC; and SAA looking for minority shareholders.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":101,"featured_media":742071,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20398],"tags":[18993],"class_list":["post-768804","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\/768804","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=768804"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/768804\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":768818,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/768804\/revisions\/768818"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/742071"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=768804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=768804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=768804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}