{"id":260757,"date":"2018-07-25T08:23:40","date_gmt":"2018-07-25T06:23:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=260757"},"modified":"2018-07-25T08:23:40","modified_gmt":"2018-07-25T06:23:40","slug":"5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-353","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/260757\/5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-353\/","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.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2018-07-24\/south-africa-court-gives-2-year-extension-on-state-graft-inquiry\">The judicial commission of enquiry into state capture has been given and extra 2 years to get to the heart of the matter.<\/a> <\/strong>Recommendations from the commission were expected 180 days after it started, in line with the Public Protector&#8217;s findings. [Bloomberg]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymaverick.co.za\/article\/2018-07-24-das-call-to-cut-fuel-levy-would-leave-a-gaping-hole-in-revenue-collection\/\">The DA and Outa&#8217;s demand that fuel levies in South Africa be but by R1 has been criticised by economists, who say the move would lead to a massive hole in revenue collection<\/a><\/strong>. Cutting the levy may look appealing, but it is not a long-term solution, economists said, adding that there is no quick-fix to the problem. [Daily Maverick]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>The 10th annual BRICS summit is kicking off in South Africa today, with many analysts expecting it to serve as the platform for <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2018-07-25\/south-africa-gives-china-platform-on-trade-agenda-as-brics-meet\">China&#8217;s kick-back against the trade-war started by US president Donald Trump.<\/a><\/strong> [Bloomberg]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/af.reuters.com\/article\/africaTech\/idAFJ8N1TM01T\">The South African weather service has warned that a new El Nino is expected to hit South Africa as we head towards spring.<\/a><\/strong> The last El Nino caused widespread drought in the country, which was the driving force behind the water crises in Cape Town and the Eastern Cape. [Reuters]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>South Africa\u2019s rand firmed more than 1% on Tuesday to a three-day best as demand for the local currency was boosted by China\u2019s promise of a $14.7 billion investment.<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/xe.com\/currencyconverter\/convert\/?Amount=1&amp;From=USD&amp;To=ZAR\"> On Wednesday the rand was trading at R13.26 to the dollar, R17.44 to the pound and R15.50 to the euro.<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The state capture commission has been granted an extra 2 years to do its job; cutting the fuel levy by R1 isn&#8217;t a viable long-term solution to rising petrol prices, economists say; China is expected to hit back at the US trade war during the BRICS summit; and more extreme weather may hit SA this spring.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":124983,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872,9874],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-260757","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-energy","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260757","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=260757"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260757\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":260773,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260757\/revisions\/260773"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/124983"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=260757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=260757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=260757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}