{"id":189582,"date":"2017-08-02T07:49:56","date_gmt":"2017-08-02T05:49:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=189582"},"modified":"2017-08-02T08:53:11","modified_gmt":"2017-08-02T06:53:11","slug":"5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-114","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/189582\/5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-114\/","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:\/\/ewn.co.za\/2017\/08\/02\/atul-gupta-we-didn-t-create-white-monopoly-capital-term\">The Guptas say they have nothing to do with the use and spreading of the term &#8220;white monopoly capital&#8221; and completely deny using British PR firm Bell Pottinger to influence South African society with socially divisive campaigns<\/a><\/strong>. Speaking to the BBC, Atul Gupta said that Bell Pottinger was just one of many PR firms the family used. The firm&#8217;s former CEO said the Guptas orchestrated everything.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.enca.com\/south-africa\/clashes-between-metered-taxi-uber-drivers-continue\">Clashes between Uber drivers and metred taxi drivers continue unabated, with footage from as recent as 30 July of attack emerging.<\/a><\/strong> Uber has moved to hire private armed response companies to protect its drivers on high-risk routes, while the South African government moves in on the company in a bid to get Uber drivers to register and get permits like their metred taxi counterparts.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymaverick.co.za\/article\/2017-08-02-amabhungane-scorpio-guptaleaks-how-the-family-encircled-lynne-brown\/#.WYFmfceg-Uk\">The latest Gupta leaks show how at least three people close to public enterprises minister Lynne Brown have close ties to the Gupta family.<\/a><\/strong> Instead of answering questions around her links to the controversial family, Brown&#8217;s representatives passed responsibility to the Hawks. So far, the Hawks have failed to gain any momentum on the leaked emails and those implicated, despite mounting evidence of corruption.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/af.reuters.com\/article\/africaTech\/idAFFWN1KO035\">Nedbank has released its interim results for the half year to June 2016, reporting a slight drop in headline earnings to R5.3 billion, down 2.9% year-on-year from the first half of 2016<\/a><\/strong>. Nedbank said that its performance was impacted by weaker than expected economic growth in the country, while the continued negative economic outlook is expected to impact its full year performance.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>South Africa&#8217;s rand extended its losses against the dollar on Tuesday after a warning by Moody&#8217;s about political interference in the country&#8217;s economic policy reignited fears about downgrades of credit ratings. <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.xe.com\/currencyconverter\/convert\/?Amount=1&amp;From=USD&amp;To=ZAR\">On Wednesday, the rand was trading at R13.25 to the dollar, R17.50 to the pound and R15.67 to the euro.<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Guptas deny anything to do with &#8220;white monopoly capital&#8221; and Bell Pottinger&#8217;s racial campaigns; Uber drivers and metred taxi drivers continue to clash violently; public enterprises minister Lynne Brown dodges questions on links to the Guptas; and Nedbank sees a drop in headline earnings thanks to the weak economy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":189628,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-189582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189582","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=189582"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189582\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":189608,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189582\/revisions\/189608"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/189628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=189582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=189582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=189582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}