{"id":232249,"date":"2018-03-16T08:10:01","date_gmt":"2018-03-16T06:10:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=232249"},"modified":"2018-03-16T08:10:01","modified_gmt":"2018-03-16T06:10:01","slug":"5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-265","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/232249\/5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-265\/","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>SARS commissioner Tom Moyane is facing fresh allegations of dodgy behaviour, this time <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymaverick.co.za\/article\/2018-03-16-scorpio-the-moyane-dossier-part-1-how-sars-boss-disregarded-the-law-to-pay-guptas-vat-refund\/#.Wqta-XcjFTY\">relating to a R70 million VAT payment to the Guptas which the revenue services head allegedly authorised unlawfully<\/a><\/strong>. In an investigation by Scorpio, it was just the first of three such payments made at Moyane&#8217;s behest. [Daily Maverick]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Australian media is hotly debating South Africa&#8217;s land reform issues, with <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.co.za\/2018\/03\/15\/oz-media-sa-should-be-banned-from-sport-over-land-reform_a_23386275\/?utm_hp_ref=za-homepage\">some calling for South Africa to be banned from Commonwealth sporting events as punishment for trying to forcibly take land from white landowners in the country<\/a><\/strong>. An Australian minister also said this week that the country would look at fast-tracking visas for white farmers from SA. [Huffpo SA]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.enca.com\/south-africa\/cabinet-approves-bill-criminalising-hate-speech-and-hate-crimes\">Cabinet has passed the new bill criminalising hate speech and hate crimes.<\/a><\/strong> The bill will now be processed by parliament. According to the bill, hate speech is a clear intention to be harmful or to incite harm or promote or propagate hatred on the basis of over 15 characteristics, including race, religion, disability, gender and others. [ENCA]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/ewn.co.za\/2018\/03\/16\/former-ministers-sacked-by-ramaphosa-assigned-new-jobs-as-backbenchers\">From big dogs to back-benchers, former president Jacob Zuma&#8217;s allies and front-men have been relegated to minor positions on portfolio committees.<\/a><\/strong> EWN has broken down where the likes of David Mohlobo and Des van Rooyen now find themselves. [EWN]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>South Africa&#8217;s rand slumped to a one week low on Thursday as a lack of momentum to push the currency beyond a recent milestone and fears of global trade war spurred investors to buy dollars. <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.xe.com\/currencyconverter\/convert\/?Amount=1&amp;From=USD&amp;To=ZAR\">On Friday the rand was trading at R11.90 to the dollar, R16.58 to the pound and R14.64 to the euro<\/a><\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SARS head Tom Moyane has been implicated in fresh allegations of doing favours for the Guptas; Australian media debate SA&#8217;s land reform &#8211; and suggest we should face sanctions for taking land; Cabinet has passed the hate speech bill; and EWN breaks down where Zuma&#8217;s top ministers find themselves now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":160097,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-232249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232249","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=232249"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232249\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":232277,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232249\/revisions\/232277"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/160097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=232249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=232249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=232249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}