{"id":135839,"date":"2016-09-07T07:45:34","date_gmt":"2016-09-07T05:45:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=135839"},"modified":"2016-09-07T07:45:34","modified_gmt":"2016-09-07T05:45:34","slug":"5-things-you-need-to-know-in-south-africa-today-36","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/135839\/5-things-you-need-to-know-in-south-africa-today-36\/","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\/economy\/2016\/09\/07\/economic-indicators-spoil-sas-gdp-cheer\">While South Africa&#8217;s GDP data is good news for the country, we should hold off celebrating for now, as other economic indicators show that we are still in big trouble.<\/a><\/strong> South Africa&#8217;s economy grew by 3.3% in Q2, representing 0.6% YoY growth. However, with high rates of unemployment and a ratings downgrade to junk on the cards, the full year picture still points to near-zero percent growth for 2016.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bdlive.co.za\/business\/2016\/09\/06\/were-all-behind-pravin-gordhan-says-ancs-zweli-mkhize\">ANC treasurer Zweli Mkhize has reaffirmed that the party and its leaders are firmly behind finance minister Pravin Gordhan, and that they had full trust in the country&#8217;s financial institutions<\/a><\/strong>. Mkhize was doing his part to plug holes left by top ANC officials who had been making &#8216;problematic&#8217; statements about South Africa&#8217;s financial pillars. He said he could not stop such remarks, but that does not mean they are ANC policy.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.iol.co.za\/news\/politics\/king-zwelithini-to-anc-i-will-step-in-2064831\">Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini has told the ANC that if it cannot lead the country and his people, it should step aside and let him do it.<\/a><\/strong> The king said that the obvious rift in the party, and murders from within, showed that the party&#8217;s leaders were failures, and losses in the 2016 elections put the country&#8217;s capital (Tshwane) and economic hub (Joburg) &#8216;in the hands of whites&#8217;.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>National Assembly will meet on Wednesday to vote in Busisiwe Mkhwebane as the new Public Protector. <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.timeslive.co.za\/thetimes\/2016\/09\/07\/Thulis-job-captured\">However, her appointment will face some opposition by the DA, which claims that\u00a0Mkhwebane was a spy for the State Security Agency &#8211; and has been for years<\/a><\/strong>. The DA said it had information showing discrepancies in\u00a0Mkhwebane&#8217;s career history, showing she left a R1 million a year job at Home Affairs to take reduced pay at the SSA.\u00a0Mkhwebane has denied the allegations.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>The rand enjoyed a big boost on Tuesday, buoyed by data that showed South Africa&#8217;s economy bounced back between April and June after a rocky first quarter.\u00a0The stronger GDP data, coupled with recent data showing a trade surplus, provided a reprieve for the rand, buffeted by worries that Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan could be charged by the Hawks. <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.xe.com\/currencycharts\/?from=USD&amp;to=ZAR\">On Wednesday the rand was at R13.95 to the dollar, R18.68 to the pound and R15.70 to the Euro<\/a><\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>In global news:\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/us-global-markets-idUSKCN11D01O\">The dollar took a tumble and Asian stocks rose to one-year highs on Wednesday<\/a><\/strong> after surprisingly weak U.S. services sector activity put paid to already slim chances of an interest rate hike by the Federal Reserve as early as this month.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini says he can govern better than the ANC; SA&#8217;s GDP data does not mean the end of bad times; the new Public Protector is already facing opposition; and the rand has strengthened to below R14 &#8211; here&#8217;s what is happening in SA today (7 September)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":88876,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872,11121,23],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-135839","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-finance","category-government","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135839","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=135839"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135839\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":135843,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135839\/revisions\/135843"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88876"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}