{"id":191678,"date":"2017-08-11T08:13:10","date_gmt":"2017-08-11T06:13:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=191678"},"modified":"2017-08-11T08:13:10","modified_gmt":"2017-08-11T06:13:10","slug":"5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-120","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/191678\/5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-120\/","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.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2017-08-10\/moody-s-may-spare-south-african-slide-to-junk-as-zuma-clings-on\">South Africa will brace for the next credit rating review by Moody&#8217;s today, though expectations are that the country will be saved from slipping into a junk rating from the group<\/a><\/strong>. Moody&#8217;s, the most optimistic of all the ratings firms, currently has South Africa&#8217;s local and foreign debt rating at one notch above junk status.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.moneyweb.co.za\/news\/south-africa\/mango-pays-double-bonuses-as-treasury-bails-out-saa\/\">Despite being bailed out with a R2.2 billion payment from South Africa&#8217;s emergency fund, SAA-owned low-cost airline, Mango, still paid out bonuses to executives and to employees<\/a><\/strong>. The group made a profit in the 2016\/17 financial year, but questions are being asked how it is possible, considering the quarterly losses recorded.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.iol.co.za\/business-report\/sa-economic-transactional-activity-increases-in-july-10721911\">Economic activity in South Africa is picking up, but not enough to show a change in fortunes.<\/a><\/strong> The latest BankservAfrica Economic Transactions Index shows a slight upswing in activity in July &#8211; however this is coming off of a low base, so is more reflective of a flat economy, rather than a swing into growth.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.iol.co.za\/news\/special-features\/zuma\/opposition-parties-reject-da-bid-to-dissolve-parliament-10736892\">While the DA appears hell-bent on dissolving Parliament and forcing early elections, other opposition parties are not buying it, with the EFF, UDM and COPE rejecting the motion<\/a><\/strong>. Analysts say that the motion would automatically fail as the ANC has a majority, and smaller parties are still reeling from the 2016 elections and have no appetite for a new election so soon.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>South African stocks pulled away from record highs on Thursday as rising tensions on the Korean peninsula drove investors to limit risks and shift to safe havens. <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.xe.com\/currencyconverter\/convert\/?Amount=1&amp;From=USD&amp;To=ZAR\">On Friday the rand was trading at R13.44 to the dollar, R17.46 to the pound and R15.82 to the euro<\/a><\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>South Africa is bracing for the latest Moody&#8217;s credit rating review; SAA&#8217;s low-cost flier Mango paid out bonuses, despite needing a government bailout; SA economic activity picked up in July; and opposition parties give a big no to the DA&#8217;s plan to dissolve Parliament.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":191694,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-191678","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\/191678","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=191678"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191678\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":191696,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191678\/revisions\/191696"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/191694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=191678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=191678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=191678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}