{"id":269619,"date":"2018-09-06T07:56:06","date_gmt":"2018-09-06T05:56:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=269619"},"modified":"2018-09-06T07:56:06","modified_gmt":"2018-09-06T05:56:06","slug":"5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-383","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/269619\/5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-383\/","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>The ANC is placing <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.businesslive.co.za\/bd\/national\/2018-09-06-jacob-zumas-maladministration-led-to-sas-economic-mess\/\">the blame for South Africa&#8217;s recession at the feet of the Jacob Zuma years<\/a><\/strong>, saying the country was reaping what years of maladministration had sowed. President Ramaphosa said the recession was part of the transitional process, and called for calm, <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/ewn.co.za\/2018\/09\/06\/ramaphosa-recession-a-transitional-issue-that-is-going-to-pass\">saying things will improve<\/a><\/strong>. [Business Day\/EWN]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.enca.com\/business\/merrill-lynch-revises-sa-growth-forecast\">Merrill Lynch has followed Goldman Sachs in cutting South Africa&#8217;s growth forecast in the wake of the recession announcement, dropping it from 1.6% to 0.9% for 2018<\/a><\/strong>. Golamn Sachs cut the forecast from 2% to 0.8% earlier in the week. [eNCA]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymaverick.co.za\/article\/2018-09-06-lawyered-up-markus-jooste-blames-christo-wiese-ex-partner-seifert-and-many-others-el-nino-and-trump-safe-for-now\/\">Former Steinhoff CEO Markus Jooste has blamed everyone but himself for the mess Steinhoff has found itself in &#8211; pleading ignorance<\/a><\/strong>, and bringing the apparent total number of top executives who were aware of fraud and maladministration at the group to zero. Jooste said he resigned over issues with the group&#8217;s auditors. [Daily Maverick]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.702.co.za\/articles\/318092\/listen-sabc-given-borrowing-limit-of-up-to-r1-2bn\">Government has granted the SABC borrowing power of up to R1.2 billion in a bid to help it avoid total collapse.<\/a><\/strong> The public broadcaster this week reported a R622 million loss. Although it is not a government guarantee, the limit will give the SABC room to pay its suppliers and producers. [702]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>South Africa\u2019s rand remained on the back foot on Wednesday after hitting a two-year low as the effects of dipping into recession dented investor risk sentiment.<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.xe.com\/currencyconverter\/convert\/?Amount=1&amp;From=USD&amp;To=ZAR\"> On Thursday the rand was at R15.50 to the dollar, R20.01 to the pound and R18.03 to the euro.<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The ANC is blaming the recession on the Jacob Zuma years; Banks are cutting South Africa&#8217;s growth forecasts in the wake of the recession; ex-Steinhoff CEO Markus Jooste pleads ignorance and shifts the blame for the accounting mess; and the SABC has been given some more room to borrow money to avoid collapse.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":170347,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872,11121],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-269619","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-finance","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269619","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=269619"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269619\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":269629,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269619\/revisions\/269629"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/170347"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=269619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=269619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=269619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}