{"id":261671,"date":"2018-07-30T07:49:43","date_gmt":"2018-07-30T05:49:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=261671"},"modified":"2018-07-30T07:49:43","modified_gmt":"2018-07-30T05:49:43","slug":"5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-356","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/261671\/5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-356\/","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.news24.com\/Africa\/Zimbabwe\/live-zimbabwe-votes-in-first-post-mugabe-election-20180730\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Zimbabwe is going to the polls in its first election since authoritarian leader Robert Mugabe was ousted last year<\/a><\/strong>. A number of international\u00a0election observer say that Zimbabwe has made progress toward holding a credible election,\u00a0but significant concerns remain &#8211; including state media bias toward the ruling party and problems with the layout of ballot papers. [News24]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.enca.com\/south-africa\/nsfas-applications-for-2019-academic-year-on-hold\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) 2019 application process &#8211; which was due to open on Wednesday &#8211; is on hold &#8216;until further notice&#8217;<\/a><\/strong>.\u00a0In a statement released on Sunday, NSFAS responded to a report by City Press that the Minister of Higher Education, Naledi Pandor, instructed them not to proceed with 2019 applications until they get their house in order. [eNCA]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.iol.co.za\/news\/south-africa\/gauteng\/gautrainstrike-commuters-urged-to-use-alternative-transport-16313880\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Gautrain users have been urged to use alternative transport\u00a0as its employees embark on a wage strike on Monday<\/a><\/strong>. In a notice sent out, the company said that\u00a0only the Centurion, Sandton and Park stations will be operating. [IOL]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/city-press.news24.com\/Special-Report\/Wealth_Index\/wealth-index-sas-corporate-elite-whiter-than-ever-20180729\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">South Africa&#8217;s top\u00a0 50 wealthiest directors are\u00a0worth a collective R323 billion \u2013 roughly the same as the 2017 gross domestic product of Mozambique and Namibia combined<\/a><\/strong>. Top spot was awarded to Ivan Glasenberg because of his 8.3% stake in Glencore, the controversial global mining and commodities group he co-founded. [City Press]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Strong US GDP growth numbers had little effect on local markets as the rand remained on the front foot on Friday afternoon, while the euro weakened marginally on the news.\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/xe.com\/currencyconverter\/convert\/?Amount=1&amp;From=USD&amp;To=ZAR\">On Monday the rand traded at R13.20 to the dollar, R17.30 to the pound and R15.39 to the euro.<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Zimbabwe votes in first post-Mugabe election; student funding applications &#8216;on hold until further notice&#8217;; Gautrain hit by strike action; and South Africa 50 wealthiest directors are worth a collective R323 billion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":242537,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-261671","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\/261671","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=261671"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261671\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":261707,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261671\/revisions\/261707"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/242537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=261671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=261671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=261671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}