{"id":154525,"date":"2017-02-02T08:15:55","date_gmt":"2017-02-02T06:15:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=154525"},"modified":"2017-02-02T08:15:55","modified_gmt":"2017-02-02T06:15:55","slug":"5-things-you-need-to-know-in-south-africa-today-128","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/154525\/5-things-you-need-to-know-in-south-africa-today-128\/","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>President Jacob Zuma is laying the groundwork to get rid of finance minister Pravin Gordhan, <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.businesslive.co.za\/bd\/politics\/2017-02-02-zuma-treasury-standing-in-way-of-transformation\/\">following statements from the ANC&#8217;s lekgotla this past week, with Business Day quoting the president as saying that National Treasury is standing in the way of the party&#8217;s transformation goals<\/a><\/strong>. The statements come amid rumours of an imminent cabinet reshuffle.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.moneyweb.co.za\/news\/industry\/banks-get-bashed-in-battle-over-south-african-financial-system\/\">The ANC\u00a0is coming down hard on South Africa&#8217;s banks, with the party&#8217;s leagues and leaders\u00a0putting the likes of Absa, FNB, Standard Bank and Nedbank squarely in the cross-hairs. <\/a><\/strong>The party is criticising the banks&#8217; dominance in the market, and calling for increased transformation. This is largely seen as &#8216;retaliation&#8217; for the banks&#8217; position to not do business with the Gupta family &#8211; but at the same time is eroding confidence in the market.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.enca.com\/south-africa\/medical-association-lashed-out-at-mahlangu-for-walking-away\">Health groups are not letting former Gauteng health MEC\u00a0Qedani Mahlangu off the hook with just a resignation after the medical ombudsman found that 94 psychiatric patients died of starvation under her watch<\/a><\/strong>.\u00a0The SA Medical Association (Sama) is just one of many groups that say that\u00a0Mahlangu cannot just &#8220;walk away&#8221;, and needs to be held accountable and face further actions.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/mg.co.za\/article\/2017-02-01-malema-to-zuma-well-see-you-at-sona\">EFF leader Julius Malema is adamant that president Jacob Zuma will seek a third term as president &#8211; so that he can avoid future court battles<\/a><\/strong>. Speaking tot he Mail &amp; Guardian, Malema said that the tension within the ANC is part of Zuma&#8217;s plan to retain the top spot, with &#8220;at least 10 people&#8221; vying for his job. Malema alluded to his party giving Zuma a hard time during his state of the nation address this year.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>South Africa&#8217;s rand strengthened on Wednesday, stretching gains into a second session as upbeat manufacturing data from China helped lift demand for emerging currencies. <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.xe.com\/currencyconverter\/convert\/?Amount=1&amp;From=USD&amp;To=ZAR\">On Thursday the rand was trading at R13.40 to the dollar, R16.99 to the pound and R14.47 to the euro<\/a><\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Zuma takes aim at Gordhan, saying he&#8217;s blocking transformation; SA banks under fire from the ANC; Malema is convinced Zuma will seek a third term as party president; and health groups want former Gauteng health MEC Qedani Mahlangu to face further action.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":53100,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11121,23],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-154525","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance","category-government","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154525","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=154525"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154525\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":154547,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154525\/revisions\/154547"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=154525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=154525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=154525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}