{"id":219657,"date":"2018-01-17T08:05:59","date_gmt":"2018-01-17T06:05:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=219657"},"modified":"2018-01-17T08:05:59","modified_gmt":"2018-01-17T06:05:59","slug":"5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-223","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/219657\/5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-223\/","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>The\u00a0Asset Forfeiture Unit says that it will be pursuing at least 17 different cases related to state capture,<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/mg.co.za\/article\/2018-01-16-r50-billion-expected-to-be-seized-in-17-state-capture-cases\"> where it hopes to seize as much as R50 billion<\/a><\/strong>. The group has prioritised six cases which are before the courts, with freeze orders waiting in the wings.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.businesslive.co.za\/bd\/national\/2018-01-17-npa-charges-mckinsey-with-collusion-in-r16bn-eskom-theft\/\">The National Prosecuting Authority is charging global consultancy McKinsey with collusion in the R1.6 billion Eskom saga<\/a><\/strong>, where it says the group abused its relationship with the power utility to allow it and the Gupta-linked Trillian to drain the funds. An affidavit filed in the High Court shows that McKinsey is also being charged with fraud in relation to Eskom&#8217;s processes.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>The woes for Gupta linked companies do not end there, as <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.businesslive.co.za\/bd\/companies\/financial-services\/2018-01-17-global-firms-kpmg-mckinsey-and-sap-face-charges\/\">the\u00a0Companies and Intellectual Property Commission has now laid criminal charges against McKinsey, as well as other global firms KPMG and SAP<\/a><\/strong>. The charges are related directly to the companies&#8217; activities with the Guptas, and from the details found in the Gupta leaks.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/ewn.co.za\/2018\/01\/17\/sars-dismisses-claims-of-corruption\">SARS has denied claims from British MP Peter Hain that the revenue service is corrupt<\/a><\/strong>. Hain claimed that SARS and law firm\u00a0Hogan Lovells covered up corrupt activity related to second in command,\u00a0Jonas Makwakwa. SARS said Hain&#8217;s claims are baseless.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>South Africa\u2019s rand rose to its strongest since July 2015 on Tuesday as it crossed crucial technical points and ignited offshore buying interest. Stocks climbed to 8-week highs, as robust retail sales and solid earnings forecasts drove investor optimism about economic growth. <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.xe.com\/currencyconverter\/convert\/?Amount=1&amp;From=USD&amp;To=ZAR\">On Wednesday, the rand was at R12.30 to the dollar, R16.94 to the pound and R15.06 to the euro.<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The AFU is chasing 17 cases hoping to seize R50 billion in assets; the NPA has charged McKinsey with fraud and corruption; KMPG and SAP are also on the hook, with the CIPC laying criminal charges against the companies for Gupta-related activities; and SARS denies that it is hiding corruption.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":205540,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872,11121],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-219657","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\/219657","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=219657"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219657\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":219663,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219657\/revisions\/219663"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/205540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}