{"id":134276,"date":"2016-08-24T07:33:36","date_gmt":"2016-08-24T05:33:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=134276"},"modified":"2016-08-24T07:39:46","modified_gmt":"2016-08-24T05:39:46","slug":"5-things-you-need-to-know-in-south-africa-today-28","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/134276\/5-things-you-need-to-know-in-south-africa-today-28\/","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><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bdlive.co.za\/national\/2016\/08\/24\/gordhan-under-threat-of-arrest\">The SAPS special investigative unit the Hawks are tight-lipped on why they have summoned finance minister Pravin Gordhan to appear at their offices on Thursday<\/a><\/strong>. News broke on Tuesday that Gordhan and four other former SARS officials were summoned by the Hawks, reportedly to receive warning statements ahead of being formally charged. The news sent the rand diving by 3% against the dollar.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Controversial SABC COO Hlaudi Motsoeneng has gone rogue, with reports coming in that the d<strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.timeslive.co.za\/news\/2016\/08\/24\/Embattled-Hlaudi-Motsoeneng-goes-rogue-defies-MPs\">efiant head of the broadcaster lashing out at &#8220;dishonourable&#8221; MPs, saying he does not need to be accountable to Parliament<\/a><\/strong>. Motsoeneng&#8217;s rant came as ANC MPs back-tracked on plans to investigate the goings-on at the SABC.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.timeslive.co.za\/thetimes\/2016\/08\/24\/SA-leans-on-credit-to-maintain-living-standards\">More and more middle class South Africans are edging towards the breadline, relying on credit facilities to get them through the month, a new report shows<\/a><\/strong>. It indicates that South Africans cannot maintain their current lifestyles due to the strained economy.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>South Africa&#8217;s rand plunged nearly three percent on reports\u00a0that Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan had been ordered to\u00a0report to a special police unit by the end of the week. <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.xe.com\/currencycharts\/?from=USD&amp;to=ZAR\">On Wednesday morning, the rand was trading at R13.94 to the dollar, R18.37 to the pound and R15.75 to the euro<\/a><\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/us-oil-global-idUSKCN10Z03T\">Oil prices fell early on Wednesday as an unexpected build in\u00a0U.S. crude stocks weighed on markets<\/a><\/strong>, along with concerns\u00a0that Chinese crude demand could falter as Beijing clamps\u00a0down on alleged tax evasion in the oil industry.\u00a0Brent crude was\u00a0trading at $49.57 a barrel, down 39 cents, while\u00a0U.S. crude was down 46 cents at $47.64 a barrel.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>In global news<\/strong>:\u00a0<strong><a href=\"http:\/\/af.reuters.com\/article\/southAfricaNews\/idAFL8N1B50EC\">Asian stocks consolidated recent gains on Wednesday, helped\u00a0by Wall Street&#8217;s rise overnight<\/a><\/strong>, even as oil prices slid\u00a0after a surprise build in U.S. crude stocks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The rand takes beating as the Hawks hone in on Pavin Gordhan; SABC COO Hlaudi Motsoeneng loses it in Parliament; and middle class South Africans turn to debt to keep up appearances &#8211; here&#8217;s what&#8217;s happening in South Africa today (24 August 2016).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":32478,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872,11121],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-134276","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\/134276","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=134276"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134276\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":134284,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134276\/revisions\/134284"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}