{"id":186227,"date":"2017-07-19T07:41:43","date_gmt":"2017-07-19T05:41:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=186227"},"modified":"2017-07-19T07:41:43","modified_gmt":"2017-07-19T05:41:43","slug":"5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-104","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/186227\/5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-104\/","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\/2017-07-19-lynne-brown-fires-up-two-more-probes-into-eskom\/\">On the eve of Eskom finally releasing its financial report for the 2016\/17 financial year, public enterprises minister Lynne brown has launched two new investigations into maladministration and corruption at the struggling power utility.<\/a><\/strong> Eskom is expected to release its report before noon, where speculation around a worsened financial position will be laid bare.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.co.za\/2017\/07\/18\/pravin-gordhan-says-publicly-for-the-first-time-zuma-must-go_a_23035226\/?utm_hp_ref=za-homepage\">Former finance minister Pravin Gordhan is no longer beating around the bush on his position regarding president Jacob Zuma, stating outright that it is time for Zuma to go.<\/a><\/strong> It is the first time Gordhan has taken a public position on Zuma directly, saying that state capture was a fact, and that the leaked Gupta emails are all the evidence needed to prove it.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymaverick.co.za\/article\/2017-07-19-amabhungane-and-scorpio-guptaleaks-the-captured-presidency\/#.WW7p6Yh96Uk\">The latest Gupta leaks show how the controversial family captured the presidency little by little, by targeting\u00a0individuals who were close to president Zuma.<\/a><\/strong> The email leaks show how the Gupta brothers drew key players in the presidency closer &#8211; through gifts and invites to events like the Gupta wedding &#8211; including the COO in the presidency, the president&#8217;s body guard, and the director of events.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.moneyweb.co.za\/mymoney\/moneyweb-tax\/taxpayers-get-penalty-surprises\/\">Some taxpayers are facing some nasty surprise penalties from SARS for failing to file tax returns in previous years &#8211; despite claims that they were not required to do so.<\/a><\/strong> SARS says that anyone who has received penalties and has an issue with them will need to report such issues to SARS. The penalties accrue for every month the tax returns were not submitted, and range between R250 and R16,000 depending on income.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>South Africa&#8217;s rand added to recent gains on Tuesday, remaining in favour with investors in search of higher yields as the dollar eased on dimming hopes of interest rate hikes soon. The rand emerged as the top currency among emerging markets.<strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.xe.com\/currencyconverter\/convert\/?Amount=1&amp;From=USD&amp;To=ZAR\"> On Wednesday, the rand was trading at R12.91 to the dollar, R16.83 to the pound and R14.90 to the euro.<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Enough is enough, it&#8217;s time for Zuma to go, says Gordhan; Eskom faces two more investigations into maladministration and corruption; the latest Gupta leaks show how the Guptas got close to Zuma through those closest to him in the presidency; and some taxpayers are getting nasty surprise penalties.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":134468,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872,11121],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-186227","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\/186227","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=186227"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186227\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":186245,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186227\/revisions\/186245"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/134468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=186227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=186227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=186227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}