{"id":247133,"date":"2018-05-25T08:04:56","date_gmt":"2018-05-25T06:04:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=247133"},"modified":"2018-05-25T08:04:56","modified_gmt":"2018-05-25T06:04:56","slug":"5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-310","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/247133\/5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-310\/","title":{"rendered":"5 important things happening in South Africa today"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Here\u2019s what is happening in and affecting South Africa today:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.businesslive.co.za\/bd\/markets\/2018-05-25-sa-braces-for-midnight-verdict-from-sp\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">S&amp;P Global Ratings is scheduled to deliver its latest verdict on SA\u2019s credit worthiness on Friday.<\/a><\/strong> With the verdict expected to be delivered sometime around midnight,\u00a0there is fear that S&amp;P will change its outlook to negative, given the poor states of Eskom, South African Airways and other state-owned enterprises. [BusinessDay]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/ewn.co.za\/2018\/05\/25\/gordhan-sa-express-grounding-a-consequence-of-state-capture\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Public enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan says the\u00a0grounding of SA Express\u00a0is a result of corruption, which has taken a toll on a number of the\u00a0country&#8217;s national assets.<\/a><\/strong> He added\u00a0that the embattled carrier\u00a0paid over R5.7 million to the Gupta-linked Trillian capital without following due process. [EWN]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fin24.com\/Economy\/sarb-should-be-independent-even-if-it-is-nationalised-ramaphosa-20180524\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">President Cyril Ramaphosa said he is committed to the independence of the South African Reserve Bank (SARB), even as the government considers nationalising it.<\/a><\/strong> The ANC last year adopted a motion calling for government ownership of the SARB, which is one of only a few central banks worldwide that is privately owned. [Fin24]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/banking\/247135\/sarb-says-cryptocurrencies-are-tokens-and-not-money\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">South Africa\u2019s central bank chooses to call digital currencies such as Bitcoin \u201ccyber-tokens\u201d because they don\u2019t meet the requirements to be classified as money.<\/a> <\/strong>It added that its newly\u00a0established a FinTech is currently reviewing the position on private cryptocurrencies and to help draw up an appropriate policy framework and regulatory regime. [Bloomberg]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>The rand firmed against major global currencies on Thursday afternoon, after the Reserve Bank kept rates on hold, in a unanimous decision. <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.xe.com\/currencyconverter\/convert\/?Amount=1&amp;From=USD&amp;To=ZAR\">On Friday the rand was trading at R12.43 to the dollar, R16.62 to the pound and R14.56 to the euro.<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Another big ratings agency decision to hit South Africa today; Gordhan says SA Express grounding is due to state capture; Ramaphosa says the Reserve Bank will keep its independence following new push to nationalise it; and the SARB has outlined why it won&#8217;t call Bitcoin a &#8216;cryptocurrency&#8217;. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":60421,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-247133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247133","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=247133"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247133\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":247147,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247133\/revisions\/247147"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60421"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=247133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=247133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=247133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}