{"id":184317,"date":"2017-07-10T07:25:36","date_gmt":"2017-07-10T05:25:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=184317"},"modified":"2017-07-10T07:25:36","modified_gmt":"2017-07-10T05:25:36","slug":"5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-97","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/184317\/5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-97\/","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=\"http:\/\/www.news24.com\/SouthAfrica\/News\/zuma-refuses-to-resign-saying-west-wants-me-out-20170709-2\">It has been revealed that President Jacob Zuma refused two requests from the ANC&#8217;s integrity commission to step down<\/a><\/strong>, on top of his refusal to meet the same call from various ANC groups, including the former leaders of the party. According to the City Press, Zuma refused to step down because he said that&#8217;s what &#8216;western powers&#8217; wanted.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.businesslive.co.za\/bd\/companies\/energy\/2017-07-10-idc-faces-r90m-loss-as-guptas-oakbay-delists\/\">The IDC will have to book a loss of R90 million as the Gupta-owned group Oakbay Resources and Energy suspends it shares on the JSE<\/a><\/strong>. The company was forced to suspend trade as it could not secure a new sponsor. Locking up its shares makes it impossible for shareholders to cash out of the company. Oakbay has lost over 70% of its value this year.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.news24.com\/SouthAfrica\/News\/baleka-why-i-must-lead-20170708\">ANC chair Baleka Mbete is throwing her hat in the ring of potential future presidents for the party and the country<\/a><\/strong>. It had always been speculated that Mbete had her eyes on the top job, but this weekend she confirmed that she would be available and eager to be nominated. Mbete said she would make a good president because she has over 40 years&#8217; experience.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.businesslive.co.za\/bd\/companies\/transport-and-tourism\/2017-07-10-sa-express-in-r873m-debt-dispute\/\">State-owned airline SA Express is facing an R87.3 million dispute as it is unable to pay its debts.<\/a><\/strong> An application by aircraft leasing company Solenta Aviation has been brought against SA Express at the High Court, with the former claiming that the local airline has not paid for leased aircraft in 2017. SA Express made a R234 million loss in the most recent financial year.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>South Africa&#8217;s rand weakened on Friday as strong U.S. employment data kept emerging market currencies on the back foot with investors betting the Federal Reserve remains on track to raise interest rates at least once this year. <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.xe.com\/currencyconverter\/convert\/?Amount=1&amp;From=USD&amp;To=ZAR\">On Monday, the rand was trading at R13.38 to the dollar, R17.27 to the pound and R15.26 to the euro.<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Report reveals why Zuma refused two requests by the ANC integrity committee to step down; the IDC risks losing R90 million because of the Guptas; Baleka Mbete throws her hat into the ANC presidential race; and SA Express in trouble for missing debt payments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":169251,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872,11121],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-184317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-finance","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184317","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=184317"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184317\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":184319,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184317\/revisions\/184319"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/169251"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=184317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=184317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=184317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}