{"id":264979,"date":"2018-08-15T08:06:20","date_gmt":"2018-08-15T06:06:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=264979"},"modified":"2018-08-15T08:06:20","modified_gmt":"2018-08-15T06:06:20","slug":"5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-367","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/264979\/5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-367\/","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>Opposition parties have reservations about newly appointed acting National Director of Public Prosecutions, Silas Ramaite, noting <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.timeslive.co.za\/politics\/2018-08-14-da-questions-ramaite-appointment-while-anc-welcomes-swift-action-by-ramaphosa\/\">that he in the past supported the decision to\u00a0not institute corruption charges against former president Jacob Zuma<\/a><\/strong>. The ANC welcomed Ramaite&#8217;s appointment. [Times Live]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.iol.co.za\/news\/politics\/north-west-municipalities-to-appear-before-scopa-over-vbs-bank-scandal-16569088\">Municipalities that put money into VBS Mutual Bank will have to appear before the public accounts committee to explain themselves.<\/a> <\/strong>VBS was put under curatorship in March, and municipalities that had money invested in the bank were unable to draw their funds. The money should have been used for service delivery. [Business Report]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Home Affairs minister Malusi Gigaba and several of his predecessors will likely be called to testify in the Gupta inquiry,<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.iol.co.za\/news\/politics\/guptas-did-not-meet-requirements-for-naturalisation-parliament-16569354\"> after a preliminary report showed that the controversial family were not suitable candidates for naturalisation<\/a><\/strong>. Two of the Gupta brothers were granted naturalisation in 2002 and 2006. [IOL]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.enca.com\/news\/maimane-responds-mashaba-zilles-controversial-tweets\">DA leadership is shrugging off social media storms caused by Helen Zille and Joburg mayor Herman Mashaba<\/a><\/strong>, saying that the party is focused on the 2019 elections. Zille caught backlash after repeating her infamous &#8216;colonialism&#8217; posts on Twitter, while Mashaba caught flack for apparently lauding US president Donald Trump. [eNCA]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>South Africa\u2019s rand gained more than 2% on Tuesday, bouncing off a two-year low struck a day before, when investors dumped emerging market assets because of fears over the Turkish economy. <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/xe.com\/currencyconverter\/convert\/?Amount=1&amp;From=USD&amp;To=ZAR\">On Wednesday the rand was trading at R14.35 to the dollar, R18.23 to the pound and R16.26 to the euro.<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Not everyone is happy about the new acting head of the NPA; municipalities caught in the VBS mess will have to account for their involvement; home affairs ministers will be called up to the Gupta inquiry to explain the family&#8217;s naturalisation; and the DA shrugs off Zille and Mashaba&#8217;s latest Twitter storms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":265007,"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":[26],"class_list":["post-264979","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264979","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=264979"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264979\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":265009,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264979\/revisions\/265009"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/265007"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=264979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=264979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=264979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}