{"id":208521,"date":"2017-11-02T08:06:10","date_gmt":"2017-11-02T06:06:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=208521"},"modified":"2017-11-02T08:06:10","modified_gmt":"2017-11-02T06:06:10","slug":"5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-177","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/208521\/5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-177\/","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.timeslive.co.za\/news\/south-africa\/2017-11-01-gupta-money-scandal-hsbc-accused-of-possible-criminal-complicity\/\">UK bank HSCB has been implicated in the widening Gupta scandal, accused of being possibly &#8220;criminally complicit&#8221; in allegations of money laundering surrounding the family.<\/a><\/strong> The bank is being accused of ignoring internal warnings about some questionable transactions with Gutpta accounts, and not having the requisite licences to process them.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2017-11-01\/foreign-investors-are-fleeing-south-africa-s-bond-market-chart\">Foreign investors have reversed their position on the South African bond market, and are now bailing at an alarming rate.<\/a><\/strong> According to data compiled by Bloomberg,\u00a0foreign investors have dumped a net R11.5 billion rand of South African bonds in the five days since Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba delivered his mid-term budget statement.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.iol.co.za\/business-report\/companies\/matshela-koko-says-eskom-employees-receive-bribes-from-power-station-11811250\">Eskom\u2019s suspended group executive for generation, Matshela Koko has started spilling the beans on corrupt activities at the power utility<\/a><\/strong>, with his latest claim that\u00a0a supplier at the Kusile power station was bribing employees &#8211; three of which he suspended. Koko is himself facing misconduct charges relating to conflicts of interest.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.702.co.za\/articles\/278877\/whole-wheat-bread-price-to-rise-on-scrapping-of-vat-zero-rating\">You can now expect to pay 14% more for whole wheat bread in South Africa as the VAT exemption for the product has been scrapped.<\/a><\/strong> Whole wheat bread, high-fibre bread and whole wheat brown bread were all previously considered &#8216;brown bread&#8217; and exempt from tax, however a technical amendment to bread laws has classed them as different types, subject to VAT.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>South Africa\u2019s rand currency was firmer on Wednesday, boosted by positive economic data and a return of investors attracted by the low exchange rate and high bond yields ahead of an interest rate decision by the U.S. central bank. <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.xe.com\/currencyconverter\/convert\/?Amount=1&amp;From=USD&amp;To=ZAR\">On Thursday the rand was at R13.95 to the dollar, R18.54 to the pound and R16.27 to the euro.<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>UK bank HSCB has been implicated in the Guptas&#8217; alleged money laundering; foreign investors pulled R11.5 billion out of SA&#8217;s bond market after the budget speech; and Eskom&#8217;s suspended executive Matshela Koko is ready to spill the beans on corruption at the utility.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":189628,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872,11121],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-208521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-finance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208521","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=208521"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208521\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":208533,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208521\/revisions\/208533"}],"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=208521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=208521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=208521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}