{"id":150561,"date":"2017-01-16T08:02:20","date_gmt":"2017-01-16T06:02:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=150561"},"modified":"2017-01-16T11:02:25","modified_gmt":"2017-01-16T09:02:25","slug":"5-thing-you-need-to-know-in-south-africa-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/150561\/5-thing-you-need-to-know-in-south-africa-today\/","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.iol.co.za\/news\/politics\/anc-succession-gwede-zweli-and-cyril-enter-the-fray-7416136\">The ANC succession battle is heating up, with deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa, ANC treasurer general Zweli Mkhize and secretary general Gwede Mantasha apparently revealing their opposition to Zuma-backed AU chair, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma&#8217;s bid for the top job<\/a><\/strong>. The three politicians, in three separate events on Sunday, took a subtle swipe at president Zuma and his preferred candidate, saying ANC members should be wary of those campaigning for their families &#8211; and that they shouldn&#8217;t use gender as a basis for their decisions.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.timeslive.co.za\/thetimes\/2017\/01\/16\/Revealed-The-Kuga-warnings-Ford-ignored\">A damning new report shows that Ford Motors South Africa was warned 12 months ago of problems relating to its Kuga range &#8211; of which 47 vehicles have burst into flames since 2015, killing one person.<\/a><\/strong> According to an investigation by the Times, a probe\u00a0conducted into 2 Kuga fires in January 2016\u00a0warned the company that there were issues &#8211; while insurance companies alerted Ford to problems as far back as 2014. Ford only issued warning to client in December 2016.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>[MUST READ]\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.co.za\/pieter-du-toit\/public-protector-busisiwe-mkhwebane-looks-to-british-spies-for-a\/?utm_hp_ref=za-homepage\">Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane&#8217;s recommendation that Absa pay back R2.25 billion is apparently based on a report compiled by British spies with a strong leaning to the SA government &#8211; while ignoring the report by judicial and legal experts, which cleared the bank of wrongdoing based on standing legislation.<\/a><\/strong> The Huffington Post SA has detailed the stark differences between the two reports &#8211; including the spies&#8217; promise to government to &#8216;get SARB under control&#8217; and get billions of rands back from SA companies.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.iol.co.za\/business-report\/disconnections-to-go-ahead-unless-payments-are-made-7404147\">Today is D-day for South African municipalities that owe Eskom billions of rands in unpaid tariffs &#8211; with the power utility saying it&#8217;s time to pay up, or get cut off.<\/a><\/strong> The group said that it will move ahead and cut off power (in a staggered system like load shedding) to eight municipalities, following a High Court ruling giving it the all-clear to do so. The municipalities in question owe the company billions, and have reportedly failed to adhere to several payment processes made available by Eskom in the past.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>South Africa&#8217;s rand edged lower on Friday after rallying more than two percent in the previous session, while a surge in demand for retailers lifted stocks. <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.xe.com\/currencyconverter\/convert\/?Amount=1&amp;From=USD&amp;To=ZAR\">On Monday the rand was trading at R13.55 to the dollar, R16.31 to the pound and R14.39 to the euro<\/a><\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The public protector&#8217;s order that Absa pay back R2.25 billion is tied to a report compiled by British spies; three of the ANC&#8217;s top six show opposition to Zuma; a new report shows Ford was warned as far back as 2014 that its Kugas were a problem; and Eskom gets ready to cut power to municipalities in debt.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":119609,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9874,11121,23],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-150561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-energy","category-finance","category-government","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150561","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=150561"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150561\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":150709,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150561\/revisions\/150709"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/119609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=150561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=150561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=150561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}