{"id":219809,"date":"2018-01-18T07:58:39","date_gmt":"2018-01-18T05:58:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=219809"},"modified":"2018-01-18T07:58:39","modified_gmt":"2018-01-18T05:58:39","slug":"5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-224","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/219809\/5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-224\/","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:\/\/mg.co.za\/article\/2018-01-18-zuma-supporters-warn-ramaphosa-against-firing-him-now\">Supporters of president Jacob Zuma have warned new ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa that firing Zuma now would destroy his shaky hold on the party<\/a><\/strong>, and ruin all the talk of unity he has pushed since taking the top spot in December. The ANC is expected to discuss Zuma&#8217;s future at a NEC meeting this week.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.businesslive.co.za\/bd\/companies\/energy\/2018-01-18-eskom-in-secret-talks-on-golden-handshake-for-koko\/\">Eskom is reportedly in secret discussions with former CEO and senior executive\u00a0Matshela Koko to negotiate a &#8216;golden handshake&#8217; for his exit from the power utility<\/a><\/strong>. Koko has been accused of corrupt activity, but was cleared by Eskom&#8217;s disciplinary processes. Despite this, and a bleak financial situation, the group wants a quiet exit for Koko.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2018-01-17\/bofa-s-292-million-loss-said-to-be-tied-to-steinhoff-s-turmoil\">The Steinhoff scandal has cost US banks over $1 billion in loans and charges, according to Bloomberg data<\/a><\/strong>. Citibank has lost over $370 million, while Bank of America has lost $292 million from the retailer&#8217;s accounting fumbles. Steinhoff has lost 90% of its value since December 2017 after revealing accounting irregularities.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymaverick.co.za\/article\/2018-01-17-eastern-cape-drought-rapidly-overtaking-the-cape-town-crisis\/#.WmAzEXcjFTY\">While all eyes are on Cape Town amid its deepening water crisis, the drought in the Eastern Cape is fast-becoming a much bigger problem, as dam levels drop at an alarming rate<\/a><\/strong>. While some relief is expected from rainfall in the coming months, this is only projected well after March, by which time dams in the area may have dried up.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>South Africa\u2019s rand weakened on Wednesday, giving back gains that lifted it to its firmest level in 2-1\/2 years as caution crept back into the market and some investors held off extending long positions. <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.xe.com\/currencyconverter\/convert\/?Amount=1&amp;From=USD&amp;To=ZAR\">On Thursday the rand was trading at R12.32 to the dollar, R17.01 to the pound and R15.01 to the euro.<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Zuma&#8217;s supporters warn Ramaphosa against trying to remove him as president; Eskom reportedly wants to give corruption-accused Koko a golden handshake; Steinhoff has cost US banks over $1 billion because if its &#8216;accounting irregularities&#8217;; and the Eastern Cape&#8217;s growing water crisis could be worse than Cape Town&#8217;s.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":53100,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872,23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-219809","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\/219809","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=219809"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219809\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":219813,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219809\/revisions\/219813"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}