{"id":206681,"date":"2017-10-23T07:55:26","date_gmt":"2017-10-23T05:55:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=206681"},"modified":"2017-10-23T07:55:26","modified_gmt":"2017-10-23T05:55:26","slug":"5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-169","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/206681\/5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-169\/","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\/national\/2017-10-23-abrahams-sides-with-zuma-in-corruption-charges-decision\/\">The National Prosecuting Authority has effectively sided with president Jacob Zuma in his corruption charges saga, by allowing Zuma to make fresh presentation for why he shouldn&#8217;t face 783 charges of fraud and corruption<\/a><\/strong>. The High Court and Supreme Court have both ruled that the withdrawal of the charges were irrational and should be reinstated.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/ewn.co.za\/2017\/10\/23\/ramaphosa-campaigners-ready-to-fight-alleged-plot-to-remove-him\">Supporters of deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa say they are ready to fight back should speculation that he is about to be fired by Zuma and charged with treason prove true.<\/a><\/strong> Ramaphosa&#8217;s campaigners say that axing the deputy will give him the moral high ground in the race to the ANC presidency, and that they are working behind the scenes to retaliate.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.businesslive.co.za\/bd\/companies\/energy\/2017-10-23-koko-inquiry-hangs-in-the-balance-after-thuggish-threats\/\">The inquiry into Eskom&#8217;s former acting CEO\u00a0Matshela Koko has taken a bizarre turn after the power utility&#8217;s evidence leader threatened to beat up Financial Mail deputy editor Sikonathi Mantshantsha<\/a><\/strong>, and was subsequently fired. Eskom says it will hire a new evidence leader to take over the case in the coming days.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.iol.co.za\/news\/politics\/da-vows-to-police-nuclear-deal-movements-11666820\">South Africa&#8217;s nuclear plans are coming under close scrutiny following weekend reports that Zuma&#8217;s latest cabinet reshuffle was done at the behest of Russia<\/a><\/strong>, for the purpose of pushing the nuclear build ahead. The DA says it will be closely tracking movements in the space, while civil action group Outa says it is ready to go to court at any sign of illegality.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>The rand weakened sharply on Friday and government bonds sold off, as speculation that President Jacob Zuma may axe his deputy Cyril Ramaphosa added to a climate of political uncertainty that has unnerved investors. <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.xe.com\/currencyconverter\/convert\/?Amount=1&amp;From=USD&amp;To=ZAR\">On Monday the rand was at R13.65 to the dollar, R18.02 to the pound and R16.07 to the euro<\/a><\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The NPA is giving Zuma another chance to get out of fraud and corruption charges; Ramaphosa&#8217;s supporters say they are ready to fight back if he gets fired; Eskom&#8217;s evidence leader threatened to assault a deputy editor; and South Africa&#8217;s nuclear plans are under close scrutiny after reports of Russia&#8217;s alleged influence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":169251,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11121,23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-206681","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance","category-government"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206681","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=206681"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206681\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":206685,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206681\/revisions\/206685"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/169251"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}