{"id":146393,"date":"2016-12-08T07:45:41","date_gmt":"2016-12-08T05:45:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=146393"},"modified":"2016-12-08T07:45:41","modified_gmt":"2016-12-08T05:45:41","slug":"5-things-you-need-to-know-in-south-africa-today-101","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/146393\/5-things-you-need-to-know-in-south-africa-today-101\/","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:\/\/amabhungane.co.za\/article\/2016-12-08-exclusive-guptas-laundered-kickback-millions-heres-the-evidence\">New evidence has emerged\u00a0showing that the Gupta family laundered millions of rands, apparently through shaking down companies who were doing business with state firms such as Transnet<\/a><\/strong>. This new evidence was the outcome of a year-long investigation by amaBhungane into a Gupta-linked company called Homix, following a paper trail in court documents. It found that R17.1 million had been run through 2 bogus companies to land in the hands of Gupta-owned TNA Media, which publishes The New Age and ANN7.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.timeslive.co.za\/politics\/2016\/12\/07\/Parliaments-presiding-officers-We-were-not-protecting-Jacob-Zuma\">Parliament&#8217;s presiding officers have hit back at criticism from opposition parties saying they go out of their way to protect president Jacob Zuma, saying that they are there to protect the programme of Parliament, nothing more<\/a><\/strong>. There has been outcry especially around Speaker Baleka Mbete, who has faced numerous calls to step down due to bias; however Mbete says she doesn&#8217;t take things personally.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.timeslive.co.za\/politics\/2016\/12\/07\/I-will-not-resign---Maguvhe\">SABC&#8217;s sole board member,\u00a0chairman Mbulaheni Maguvhe, has remained defiant in the face of a Parliamentary inquiry into the broadcaster, and absolutely refuses to step down<\/a><\/strong>. After a heated discussion with the panel on Wednesday, Maguvhe and the SABC team stormed out of the inquiry playing victim at the press briefing held soon after. He said the MPs in the inquiry bullied and demeaned him, and that the only way he would step down was if the SABC&#8217;s &#8216;appointing authority&#8217; told him to go.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.timeslive.co.za\/thetimes\/2016\/12\/08\/UK-courts-SA-after-dumping-the-EU\">The UK&#8217;s\u00a0Finance Minister Philip Hammond is in South Africa to reassure government and officials that trade agreements between the two countries are safe in the wake of the &#8216;Brexit&#8217;<\/a><\/strong>. Hammond has pledged millions of pounds in aid to South Africa&#8217;s development programmes, and has described South Africa as a key strategic partner. The UK is on the mending path following a vote by its people to exit the European Union. The UK economy took a knock, as many countries questioned what trade agreements would hold after the move.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>South Africa&#8217;s rand rallied for a fourth consecutive session on Wednesday, lifted by improved demand for riskier currencies globally as investors bet the European Central Bank (ECB) would extend its bond-buying programme.<strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.xe.com\/currencyconverter\/convert\/?Amount=1&amp;From=USD&amp;To=ZAR\"> On Thursday, the rand was trading at R13.49 to the dollar, R17.07 to the pound and R14.54 to the euro<\/a><\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>New evidence shows how the Guptas have been laundering millions of rands in kickbacks; Parliamentary speakers insist they&#8217;re not trying to defend president Jacob Zuma; the SABC&#8217;s last board member gives Parliament the finger; and the UK is in South Africa to reassure us we&#8217;ll still be friends after the Brexit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":143991,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872,11121,23],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-146393","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\/146393","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=146393"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146393\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":146417,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146393\/revisions\/146417"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/143991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}