{"id":227703,"date":"2018-02-26T08:07:17","date_gmt":"2018-02-26T06:07:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=227703"},"modified":"2018-02-26T08:07:17","modified_gmt":"2018-02-26T06:07:17","slug":"5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-251","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/227703\/5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-251\/","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\/sunday-times\/news\/2018-02-24-ramaphosa-grounds-ministers-as-cabinet-reshuffle-looms\/\">President Cyril Ramaphosa has grounded ministers as the country waits for a widely expected cabinet reshuffle and announcement of a new deputy president for the country<\/a><\/strong>. The president has blocked ministers from travelling overseas on official business, and instead ordered them to focus on service delivery here at home.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.co.za\/2018\/02\/25\/the-walls-are-closing-in-and-zuma-is-dead-in-the-centre_a_23370485\/?utm_hp_ref=za-homepage\">Former president Jacob Zuma is expected to face 18 charges of fraud, corruption and racketeering<\/a><\/strong>, after five senior prosecutors at the NPA agreed unanimously to recommend that the charges be reinstated. Outside of the NPA, Zuma will also still face a judicial inquiry into state capture, as the walls close in on his involvement with the saga.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>National Treasury&#8217;s decision to hike VAT rates to 15% is facing questions and challenges from political parties. The DA has started a petition against the increase, while <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.enca.com\/south-africa\/anc-nec-didnt-discuss-ministerial-appointments-magashule\">the ANC wants to expand the list of zero-rated items that are exempt from VAT, so that South Africa&#8217;s poorest and most vulnerable can escape the bulk of the coming pain<\/a><\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.co.za\/2018\/02\/25\/public-protector-hell-no-i-wont-go_a_23370794\/?utm_hp_ref=za-homepage\">Public protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane says she will not resign and will stay in her position until 2023.<\/a><\/strong> There have been an increase in calls for her to resign after the botched Absa\/CIEX report, in which a court ordered Mkhwebane to pay costs, personally. However, the PP argues that most of her work is good and making a positive impact.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>South Africa&#8217;s rand firmed on Friday amid talk that new President Cyril Ramaphosa would likely announce a new cabinet after a party meeting over the weekend, while stocks rose led by the banking sector. <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.xe.com\/currencyconverter\/convert\/?Amount=1&amp;From=USD&amp;To=ZAR\">On Monday the rand was at R11.52 to the dollar, R16.15 to the pound and R14.21 to the euro.<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ministers have been grounded ahead of an expected cabinet reshuffle; Zuma will likely face 18 charges of fraud and corruption; parties have different takes on the VAT hike to 15%; and the public protector says she has no reason to resign, despite the Absa\/CIEX court blunder.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":217095,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11121,23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-227703","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\/227703","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=227703"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227703\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":227717,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227703\/revisions\/227717"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/217095"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=227703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=227703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=227703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}