{"id":180123,"date":"2017-06-20T07:59:32","date_gmt":"2017-06-20T05:59:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=180123"},"modified":"2017-06-20T07:59:32","modified_gmt":"2017-06-20T05:59:32","slug":"5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-83","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/finance\/180123\/5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-83\/","title":{"rendered":"5 important things happening 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=\"https:\/\/www.businesslive.co.za\/bd\/national\/2017-06-20-lesetja-kganyago-defends-reserve-banks-mandate\/\">Reserve Bank governor Lesetja Kganyago has defended the bank&#8217;s primary objective, saying that the goal of keeping inflation low and protecting the country&#8217;s currency is already supportive of inclusive growth<\/a><\/strong>. His comments come as Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane sneaked in a proclamation, calling for the Constitution to be changed, removing the &#8216;protect the currency&#8217; bit from SARB&#8217;s primary goal, replacing it with &#8216;protect the people&#8217;.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/af.reuters.com\/article\/southAfricaNews\/idAFL8N1JG5BR\">Ratings agency Fitch has warned that South Africa&#8217;s new mining rules &#8211; forcing all mining companies to be 30% black-owned &#8211; will likely deter investment in the country, saying it was a radical approach to BEE<\/a><\/strong>. The group said BEE has been a longstanding feature in SA, but this move shows government is prioritising &#8216;radical economic transformation&#8217; above growth, and has created uncertainty around the outcomes.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.fin24.com\/Companies\/Financial-Services\/absa-no-obligation-to-pay-r1125bn-bailout-20170619\">Absa says it will challenge the Public Protector&#8217;s order that government and SARB recover R1.1 billion from it, noting that it has already met all its obligations in respect of the loan provided by the SA Reserve Bank.<\/a><\/strong> The bank said it is under no obligation to pay, and will consider its legal options once it has received the report and consulted wit its legal team.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2017-06-20\/jacob-zuma-blamed-for-south-africa-s-woes\">Analysts and economists agree: president Jacob Zuma is tanking South Africa&#8217;s economy; with erratic political decisions and a focus on reform with no clear definitions, Zuma has destroyed investor trust and created an environment of uncertainty.<\/a><\/strong> According to investors interviewed by Bloomberg, the last time South Africa was in recession it was because of the global economic crisis &#8211; this time, it&#8217;s because of just one man.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>South Africa&#8217;s rand fell more than 1.5% on Monday after the public protector agency recommended changing the constitution to force the central bank to promote economic growth rather than currency and price stability. <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.xe.com\/currencyconverter\/convert\/?Amount=1&amp;From=USD&amp;To=ZAR\">On Tuesday the rand was trading at R12.95 to the dollar, R16.53 to the pound and R14.47 to the euro.<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Reserve Bank governor says inclusive growth is already part of its mandate; Fitch warns SA&#8217;s new mining charter will chase away investors; Absa will fight the R1.1 billion ruling; and economists and analysts agree: Zuma is to blame for tanking South Africa&#8217;s economy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":45809,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11121],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-180123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180123","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=180123"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180123\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":180125,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180123\/revisions\/180125"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}