{"id":184549,"date":"2017-07-11T07:41:56","date_gmt":"2017-07-11T05:41:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=184549"},"modified":"2017-07-11T07:41:56","modified_gmt":"2017-07-11T05:41:56","slug":"5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-98","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/184549\/5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-98\/","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\/companies\/energy\/2017-07-11-eskom-plans-to-take-action-against-former-acting-ce--matshela-koko\/\">Eskom&#8217;s board is planning on taking action against former acting CEO,\u00a0Matshela Koko, in a bid to fix perceptions that the company harbours and cultivates corruption.<\/a><\/strong> Koko, and former CEO Brian Molefe, were recently flagged by Eskom&#8217;s auditors. Koko in particular has been called out for approving contracts worth millions with companies where his step-daughter held an interest.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.businesslive.co.za\/bd\/politics\/2017-07-11-sacp-shuns-zuma-at-congress\/\">The SACP has rebuked president Jacob Zuma in the same line as Cosatu, by refusing to allow the president to address its members at its congress, which starts today. <\/a><\/strong>The SACP has outright rejected Zuma as president and has called on him to step down on a number of occasions. At its congress, the party will decide whether or not to split from the ANC alliance and contest the 2019 elections on its own.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.moneyweb.co.za\/news\/tech\/sa-takes-steps-to-set-up-national-financial-blockchain\/\">22 South African financial groups &#8211; including all the big banks, the JSE and investment firms &#8211; have come together to set up a national blockchain. <\/a><\/strong>The consortium, called the South African\u00a0Financial Blockchain Consortium are investigating as many as 4 different blockchain technologies, including Etherium, for local use. Blockchain technology is widely expected to disrupt the financial market as we know it.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Concerns are being raised around a recent spate of break-ins at the offices of state prosecutors and investigative units, where laptops and other equipment are being stolen. <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/ewn.co.za\/2017\/07\/11\/more-details-emerge-on-npa-burglary-saga\">The latest break in, at the offices of the NPA in Pretoria, had equipment stolen belonging to prosecutors who are investigating Hawks Brigadier Nyameka Xaba, who is a suspect in a case.<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>South Africa&#8217;s rand reversed earlier gains and slipped against the dollar on Monday as the U.S. currency hit a two-month high against the yen, boosted by robust economic data. <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.xe.com\/currencyconverter\/convert\/?Amount=1&amp;From=USD&amp;To=ZAR\">On Tuesday the rand was trading at R13.46 to the dollar, R17.33 to the pound and R15.32 to the euro.<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Eskom is trying to clean up its corrupt image, and will be taking action against former acting CEO Matshela Koko; the SACP, like Cosatu, have barred president Jacob Zuma from speaking at its conference; and 22 SA financial heavyweights are setting up a South African blockchain.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":75316,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872,11121],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-184549","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\/184549","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=184549"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184549\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":184557,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184549\/revisions\/184557"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=184549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=184549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=184549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}