{"id":269953,"date":"2018-09-07T08:13:19","date_gmt":"2018-09-07T06:13:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=269953"},"modified":"2018-09-07T08:13:19","modified_gmt":"2018-09-07T06:13:19","slug":"5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-384","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/269953\/5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-384\/","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.dailymaverick.co.za\/article\/2018-09-06-vincent-maleka-slam-dunks-guptas-request-to-cross-examine-witnesses-from-their-dubai-safe-house-via-video\/\">The Guptas have so far refused to return to South Africa to testify in the state capture commission, requesting that they be allowed to do so via video from Dubai.<\/a><\/strong> The evidence leader argues they want special treatment outside the reach of South African law. Judge Zondo will rule on the matter next week. [Daily Maverick]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.702.co.za\/articles\/318289\/listen-etc-says-scrapping-e-tolls-could-be-devastating-for-the-economy\">If government scraps e-tolls, the over R40 billion in debt owed for the project may become immediately payable<\/a><\/strong> &#8211; which could devastate the economy. This is according to the Kapsch-owned ETC, which is contracted to collect e-tolls in South Africa. [702]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fin24.com\/Economy\/sa-is-not-actually-in-a-recession-economist-roelof-botha-20180907\">Despite the latest GDP data showing otherwise, some economists believe that South Africa is not in recession<\/a><\/strong>. Looking at the country&#8217;s GDP data year on year (as the OECD does), rather than quarter on quarter, the numbers show growth. Year on year, Q2 GDP grew by 0.4%. [News24]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/af.reuters.com\/article\/southAfricaNews\/idAFL5N1VS4QH\">Nigeria&#8217;s central bank has debited banks linked to its demand for MTN to pay back $8.1 billion for &#8216;expatriating dividends&#8217;<\/a><\/strong>. The banks have been accused of helping MTN do so, and are still trying to appeal to the bank despite the debits. [Reuters]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>The South African rand firmed on Thursday after data showed the country\u2019s current account deficit was narrowing more than expected and as other emerging market currencies picked up. <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.xe.com\/currencyconverter\/convert\/?Amount=1&amp;From=USD&amp;To=ZAR\">On Friday the rand was trading at R15.30 to the dollar, R19.78 to the pound and R17.79 to the euro.<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Guptas want special treatment in the state capture commission &#8211; refusing to come back to South Africa; scrapping e-tolls would devastate the economy, says the company contracted to collect them; and there are economists who believe South Africa isn&#8217;t in recession.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":70473,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872,23],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-269953","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\/269953","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=269953"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269953\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":269969,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269953\/revisions\/269969"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=269953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=269953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=269953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}