{"id":777360,"date":"2024-06-18T08:00:25","date_gmt":"2024-06-18T06:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=777360"},"modified":"2024-08-19T16:55:35","modified_gmt":"2024-08-19T14:55:35","slug":"5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-1791","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/5-things\/777360\/5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-1791\/","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>Vodacom fires 631 workers over fraud:<\/strong>\u00a0Following Vodacom&#8217;s year-long investigation of over 8,652 cases of alleged fraud or irregularities, 631 staff\/contractors were dismissed, while 15 suspects ultimately ended up being arrested. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.businesslive.co.za\/bd\/companies\/telecoms-and-technology\/2024-06-18-vodacom-fires-631-workers-over-fraud\/\" 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><b>National Skills Fund mismanagement scandal: <\/b>The Department of Higher Education\u2019s National Skills Fund is at the centre of a mismanagement scandal, with more than R130 million for training for youth-owned small, medium and micro enterprises allegedly not finding their way to beneficiaries. These allegations have come from project facilitators, who say that much of the work done remains unpaid, which the NSF said it was unaware of and will investigate the allegations. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.citizen.co.za\/news\/nsf-mismanagement-r130-million-missing\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The Citizen<\/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>Meyerton smelter set for R1.8 billion revival:\u00a0<\/strong>The Metalloys smelter in Meyerton, which once supported over 700 jobs and produced around a million\u00a0tons of manganese alloys annually, is set to be rejuvenated with a new R1.8 billion sales deal. The smelter is owned by the Samancor manganese joint venture, which is managed by South32 \u2013 a 60% shareholder \u2013 while Anglo American holds the remaining 40%. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.news24.com\/fin24\/companies\/meyerton-smelter-set-for-r18bn-revival-from-prospective-new-owners-including-mcebisi-jonas-20240618\" 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>&#8220;Huge&#8221; interest from China in EC Economic Zone:<\/strong> The Coega Development Corporation (CDC) said that there is major interest from Chinese investors and companies in its Eastern Cape economic zone.\u00a0CDC spokesperson Ayanda Vilakazi told News24 that a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the China Construction Bank Corporation was finalised, which is set to establish Coega as a global strategic partner with China&#8217;s third-largest commercial lender\u00a0and also promote business expansion and development between the two countries.\u00a0[<a href=\"https:\/\/www.news24.com\/fin24\/companies\/coega-growing-trust-drives-increased-chinese-investment-in-ec-special-economic-zone-20240617\">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 rand strengthened against major currencies over the long weekend, ahead of the unity government that is set to be formed after President-elect Cyril Ramaphosa&#8217;s inauguration on Wednesday. On Tuesday (18 June), the rand was trading at R18.27 to the dollar, R23.19 to the pound, and R19.57 to the euro. Oil is trading at $84.12 a barrel. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/africa\/south-african-rand-stable-focus-unity-government-talks-2024-06-12\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Reuters<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Vodacom fires 631 employees over fraud; National Skills Fund scandal; Meyerton smelter set for revival; and &#8216;Huge&#8217; interest from China in EC Economic Zone.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":101,"featured_media":714872,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20398],"tags":[18993],"class_list":["post-777360","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\/777360","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=777360"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777360\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777387,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777360\/revisions\/777387"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/714872"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}