{"id":199750,"date":"2017-09-20T08:01:34","date_gmt":"2017-09-20T06:01:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=199750"},"modified":"2017-09-20T08:01:34","modified_gmt":"2017-09-20T06:01:34","slug":"5-important-things-you-need-to-know-in-south-africa-today-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/trending\/199750\/5-important-things-you-need-to-know-in-south-africa-today-4\/","title":{"rendered":"5 important things you need to know 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.timeslive.co.za\/news\/south-africa\/2017-09-20-darkness-descends-on-kpmg\/\">KPMG&#8217;s reputation in South Africa is in tatters, and many are celebrating<\/a><\/strong>, saying that it&#8217;s a shining example of accountability finally catching up with companies who engage in dodgy business dealings. KPMG international, meanwhile, has apologised profusely for the South African branch&#8217;s role in the Gupta scandal, saying <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.moneyweb.co.za\/news\/south-africa\/kpmg-international-chairman-apologises-for-south-africa-failings\/\">&#8220;this is not who we are&#8221;<\/a><\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.co.za\/2017\/09\/19\/the-ancs-presidential-race-to-december-heres-the-current-state-of-play_a_23215132\/?utm_hp_ref=za-homepage\">The ANC&#8217;s provincial branches are scampering as secretary general Gwede Mantashe this week banned all conferences after 30 September. <\/a><\/strong>Many provinces&#8217; leadership teams are in disarray &#8211; but Mantashe said they have to get their act together and focus on December&#8217;s elective conference. The party is deeply divided, with infighting between factions.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.timeslive.co.za\/news\/south-africa\/2017-09-20-spy-on-your-neighbour-wcape-proposals-to-tackle-alcohol-abuse\/\">The Western Cape government is moving to make alcohol more expensive and more difficult to buy<\/a><\/strong>, with the publishing of a new White Paper aimed at reducing the harm caused by alcohol abuse. Among the proposals are a provincial tax on booze, on top of sin taxes, as well as the limiting of trading hours for liquor stores.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>T<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.businesslive.co.za\/bd\/companies\/retail-and-consumer\/2017-09-19-retail-turmoil-claims-major-scalp-as-toys-r-us-files-for-bankruptcy-protection\/\">he local arm of global toy company, Toys R Us, has moved to allay fears after the US arm announced that it was bankrupt <\/a><\/strong>and moving into business rescue. In a statement, Toys R Us South Africa said that the opposite was true closer to home, with the business robust, and even growing.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>South Africa&#8217;s rand weakened to a five-week low against the dollar on Tuesday before the central bank&#8217;s interest rate decision this week and the U.S. Federal Reserve&#8217;s policy meeting. Stocks were mixed. <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.xe.com\/currencyconverter\/convert\/?Amount=1&amp;From=USD&amp;To=ZAR\">On Wednesday the rand was trading at R13.31 to the dollar, R18.00 to the pound and R15.99 to the euro<\/a><\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>KPMG&#8217;s reputation in SA is in tatters, as its international chairman apologises; the WC government wants to make alcohol more expensive and more difficult to buy; the ANC&#8217;s provincial branches are in disarray ahead of the December elective conference; and Toys R Us South Africa says things are going great, locally.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":162363,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-199750","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trending"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199750","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=199750"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199750\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":199768,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199750\/revisions\/199768"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/162363"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=199750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=199750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=199750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}