{"id":214145,"date":"2017-12-01T07:42:44","date_gmt":"2017-12-01T05:42:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=214145"},"modified":"2017-12-01T13:11:07","modified_gmt":"2017-12-01T11:11:07","slug":"5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-198","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/214145\/5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-198\/","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>Suspended Eskom head Matshela Koko now claims that he is being targeted because he was dealing with corrupt comrades, <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.businesslive.co.za\/bd\/companies\/energy\/2017-12-01-matshela-koko-claims-eskom-colleagues-were-on-the-take\/\">who he claims were taking bribes from suppliers dealing with the Kusile power station<\/a><\/strong>. Koko was testifying in defence of his own corruption charges, where his step-daughter scored lucrative Eskom contracts under his watch.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>With the ANC&#8217;s elective conference fast approaching, a better picture of support across the party&#8217;s branches is coming into view. T<strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.co.za\/2017\/11\/30\/presidential-race-who-provinces-could-nominate-for-top-spot_a_23292956\/?utm_hp_ref=za-homepage\">he Eastern Cape is the latest to announce its support of Cyril Ramaphosa for the next president, just days after the Free State backed Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma<\/a><\/strong>. However, KZN is still hanging as divisions rage on in the province.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/ewn.co.za\/2017\/12\/01\/mashaba-the-will-of-the-people-has-been-upheld\">DA mayors of Johannesburg and Nelson Mandela Bay have survived the no confidence votes launched against them by the ANC<\/a><\/strong>. The ANC tried wooing the EFF over to their camp to vote against Joburg mayor Herman Mashaba and NMB mayor Athol Trollip, but the party in red did not bite. Both motions were defeated.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.enca.com\/money\/ramaphosa-rules-out-imf-assistance-for-eskom\">Deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa has ruled out IMF support for Eskom, saying that such a move would sacrifice the country&#8217;s sovereignty<\/a><\/strong>. Eskom is currently the biggest liability on South Africa&#8217;s books, accounting for R350 billion of the government&#8217;s R470-odd billion guarantees book. It has been hit with liquidity issues.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>The rand firmed on Thursday, supported by a weaker U.S. dollar and data showing the country recorded a trade surplus for the ninth consecutive month in October. <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.xe.com\/currencyconverter\/convert\/?Amount=1&amp;From=USD&amp;To=ZAR\">On Friday, the rand was trading at R13.73 to the dollar, <\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/www.xe.com\/currencyconverter\/convert\/?Amount=1&amp;From=USD&amp;To=ZAR\">R18.58<\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/www.xe.com\/currencyconverter\/convert\/?Amount=1&amp;From=USD&amp;To=ZAR\"> to the pound and R16.37 to the euro<\/a><\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Eskom&#8217;s Koko spills the beans on other corruption going on at the power utility; Eastern Cape backs Ramaphosa as next ANC president; DA mayors in Joburg and NMB survive the ANC&#8217;s no confidence votes; and Ramaphosa says an IMF bailout for Eskom is not an option.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":103707,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872,23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-214145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-government"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214145","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=214145"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214145\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":214291,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214145\/revisions\/214291"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=214145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=214145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=214145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}