{"id":266857,"date":"2018-08-23T07:36:59","date_gmt":"2018-08-23T05:36:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=266857"},"modified":"2018-08-23T07:36:59","modified_gmt":"2018-08-23T05:36:59","slug":"5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-373","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/266857\/5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-373\/","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\/2018-08-22\/south-africa-wants-rapid-release-of-public-land-ramaphosa-says\">President Cyril Ramaphosa says he is looking for a win-win outcome to land reform in South Africa, stating that his bid to give land to the poor will strengthen property rights.<\/a><\/strong> He said that the plan is to first release publicly-owned (state) land &#8211; rejecting the suggestion that all land will be nationalised. [Bloomberg]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/266847\/trump-asks-his-secretary-of-state-to-study-land-expropriation-and-farm-killings-in-south-africa\/\">US President Donald Trump says he has asked\u00a0his secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, to study the seizure and expropriation of land in South Africa, along with the killing of farmers.<\/a><\/strong> The announcement follows a warning being issued by a US think tank on the possible consequences of SA&#8217;s land reform moves. [BusinessTech]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.businesslive.co.za\/bd\/economy\/2018-08-23-review-of-fuel-levy-is-possible\/\">Reviewing the fuel levy downwards to help alleviate the burden on South African motorists and households has not been ruled out, Parliament has heard<\/a><\/strong>. With fuel prices hitting over R16 a litre in the past month, consumers have come under strain &#8211; with the department of energy at a loss for what to do about it. [Business Day]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.iol.co.za\/business-report\/economy\/mantashe-quashes-vexing-mining-bill-16692624\">Mineral resources minister Gwede Mantashe has declared that the government will withdraw the controversial Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act<\/a><\/strong>, bringing some relief to one of South Africa&#8217;s biggest industries. Mining groups have been hard hit by policy uncertainty, with production dropping to new lows. [IOL]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>South Africa\u2019s rand firmed on Wednesday driven higher by a weakening dollar, while stocks firmed across the board tracking the stronger currency and other emerging markets. <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.xe.com\/currencyconverter\/convert\/?Amount=1&amp;From=USD&amp;To=ZAR\">On Thursday, the rand was trading at R14.34 to the dollar, R18.46 to the pound and R16.57 to the euro.<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ramaphosa says land reform will strengthen private property rights; Trump wants his administration to keep an eye on land expropriation in South Africa; reviewing the fuel levy to lower petrol prices is not off the table; and the mining industry gets some relief as government withdraws a controversial Act.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":259409,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872,23],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-266857","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-government","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266857","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=266857"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266857\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":266883,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266857\/revisions\/266883"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/259409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=266857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=266857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=266857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}