{"id":150169,"date":"2017-01-12T08:19:39","date_gmt":"2017-01-12T06:19:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=150169"},"modified":"2017-01-12T08:56:48","modified_gmt":"2017-01-12T06:56:48","slug":"5-things-you-need-to-know-in-south-africa-today-114","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/150169\/5-things-you-need-to-know-in-south-africa-today-114\/","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.businesslive.co.za\/bd\/politics\/2017-01-12-ancs-deputy-should-get-top-spot\/\">ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe believes deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa is competent, and that it stands to reason that when a deputy president is chosen\u00a0it should inform succession roles<\/a><\/strong> &#8211; it would be questionable if it did not. However, he noted that it should also be open to debate, and that a debate should take place. It is speculated that Mantashe supports Ramaphosa as the next president of the party.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.businesslive.co.za\/bd\/economy\/2017-01-12-downgrade-hangs-over-sa-warns-sampp\/\">Ratings firm S&amp;P Global &#8211; which has South Africa at one notch above junk status &#8211; has again warned that the country is under pressure to maintain an investment grade rating<\/a><\/strong>, saying that if the economy slows down, or government makes any risky financial decisions leading to more debt, a cut would soon follow.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.timeslive.co.za\/politics\/2017\/01\/12\/%E2%80%98Don%E2%80%99t-talk-s-about-her%E2%80%99-social-development-minister%E2%80%99s-spokesperson-expletive-laden-rant\">Spokesperson for social development minister\u00a0Bathabile Dlamini has gone on an expletive-ridden rant, following a report that questioned whether the minister was drunk while making a speech in Germiston last week<\/a><\/strong>. The official,\u00a0Lumka Oliphant, told the paper to not &#8220;talk sh** about her (Dlamini)&#8221;, and said that the accusations against her were &#8220;sh**&#8221;.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/ewn.co.za\/2017\/01\/12\/cities-of-jhb-tshwane-and-ekurhuleni-meet-targets-of-reducing-water-usage\">Municipalities in Gauteng &#8211; including the City of Joburg, Ekhuruleni and Tshwane &#8211; have finally met the target of reducing water usage by 15%<\/a><\/strong>. This follow months of campaigns asking residents and businesses to stop wasting water, and the implementation of water restrictions across the province. The department of water and sanitation says that water restrictions will be reviewed in May, as heavy rains have brought much-needed relief.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>South Africa&#8217;s rand dropped to a two-week low against the dollar on Wednesday as emerging market currencies were pressured by concerns Turkey&#8217;s central bank won&#8217;t be able to stem the lira&#8217;s decline. Stocks closed in the black, lifted for a second day by large mining firms. <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.xe.com\/currencyconverter\/convert\/?Amount=1&amp;From=USD&amp;To=ZAR\">On Thursday, the rand was trading at R13.70 to the dollar, R16.74 to the pound and R14.53 to the euro<\/a><\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The social development minister&#8217;s spokesperson wants everyone to &#8220;stop talking sh**&#8221; about her; ANC SG Gwede Mantashe has his say on how the party&#8217;s succession should go; junk status warnings are back on the map for 2017; and Gauteng residents have finally hit their water use targets.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":137581,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872,11121,23],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-150169","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\/150169","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=150169"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150169\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":150207,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150169\/revisions\/150207"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/137581"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=150169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=150169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=150169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}