{"id":132080,"date":"2016-08-01T07:29:53","date_gmt":"2016-08-01T05:29:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=132080"},"modified":"2016-08-01T07:29:53","modified_gmt":"2016-08-01T05:29:53","slug":"5-things-you-need-to-know-in-south-africa-today-17","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/132080\/5-things-you-need-to-know-in-south-africa-today-17\/","title":{"rendered":"5 things you need to know in South Africa today"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Here&#8217;s what is happening in and affecting South Africa today:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>With election week upon us, political parties have concluded their campaigning and will now wait for the result of Wednesday&#8217;s vote. The ANC is expected to face its toughest election to date, with polls showing the party losing support in key metros. <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2016-07-31\/day-of-reckoning-for-anc-as-south-africa-elects-local-councils\">Economists and investors will look to the vote as a census of sorts into how strong the ANC&#8217;s alliances are &#8211; and how likely president Jacob Zuma will remain at the helm<\/a><\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bdlive.co.za\/business\/transport\/2016\/08\/01\/saa-posts-first-quarter-loss-of-r1.38bn-but-cash-position-better\">SAA is continuing to bleed money, having lost R1.4 billion in the first quarter of this year<\/a><\/strong> &#8211; counter to chairwoman, Dudu Myeni&#8217;s assertions that the group was starting to see money come in. The group needs guarantees of R5 billion or more from government, which government won&#8217;t grant until a new board is in place. However, Myeni is doubling down on power &#8211; and <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.moneyweb.co.za\/news\/south-africa\/saa-board-to-take-over-control-of-the-boards-of-mango-other-subsidiaries\/\">the board will now have control of low-cost airline, Mango, as well<\/a><\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>South Africa&#8217;s rand rallied to its firmest against the\u00a0dollar in more than eight months after recording a\u00a0larger-than-expected June trade surplus on\u00a0Friday. <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.xe.com\/currencycharts\/?from=USD&amp;to=ZAR&amp;view=1W\">On Monday, the rand was trading stronger against global currencies, hitting R13.89 to te dollar, R18.39 to the pound and R15.52 to the euro<\/a><\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>In global news:<strong><a href=\"http:\/\/af.reuters.com\/article\/southAfricaNews\/idAFL8N1AF5KB\">\u00a0Asian shares hit a one-year high on Monday after\u00a0disappointing U.S. economic growth data<\/a><\/strong> reduced expectations\u00a0that the U.S. Federal Reserve will raise interest rates in\u00a0the next few months.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/us-global-oil-idUSKCN10C15N\">Oil prices started August trading with fresh falls on Monday\u00a0after several bearish reports, including rising output from\u00a0OPEC<\/a><\/strong>, a rise in U.S. drilling and weak economic data from\u00a0Asia. Brent crude was at $43.72 per barrel , up 19 cents from its last close in July;\u00a0U.S. crude\u00a0was at 41.76 per barrel, up 16 cents from July&#8217;s last close.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>In other news<\/strong>:\u00a0Despite having passed away almost 3 years ago, former president Nelson Mandela is playing a key role in the 2016 municipal elections. While the Democratic Alliance continues to evoke Mandela&#8217;s name in its campaigning, the ANC spent a large part if its rallies <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.timeslive.co.za\/politics\/2016\/07\/31\/Mandela%E2%80%99s-sentiments-about-DA-recurring-theme-at-ANC-rally\">focusing on Mandela&#8217;s opinion of the DA while he was alive, highlighting his views that only the ANC could run South Africa<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Elections are upon us, SAA continues to bleed money, and the rand starts the week strong &#8211; here&#8217;s what is happening in and affecting South Africa today (1 August 2016)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":110953,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872,11121],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-132080","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-finance","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132080","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=132080"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132080\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":132082,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132080\/revisions\/132082"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/110953"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=132080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=132080"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=132080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}