{"id":276353,"date":"2018-10-10T08:13:42","date_gmt":"2018-10-10T06:13:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=276353"},"modified":"2018-10-10T08:13:42","modified_gmt":"2018-10-10T06:13:42","slug":"5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-406","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/276353\/5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-406\/","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>Markets have given South Africa&#8217;s new finance minister Tito Mboweni a warm welcome, but <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2018-10-09\/new-south-african-finance-minister-faces-same-old-problems\">the finmin still has many challenges lying ahead of him, and very little room to manoeuvre<\/a><\/strong>. Analysts have said he will have little choice but to follow the plan already set out by his predecessors, meaning there likely won&#8217;t be any major policy changes. [Bloomberg]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.timeslive.co.za\/politics\/2018-10-10-i-never-assisted-the-gupta-family-gigaba-tells-parliament\/\">Home affairs minister Malusi Gigaba remains defensive in the Gupta naturalisation investigation, saying that he in no way helped the family with their naturalisation<\/a><\/strong>. He noted that all the members of the family currently under scrutiny were naturalised before his tenure. [TimesLive]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.702.co.za\/articles\/322373\/it-s-a-win-for-the-eff\">The EFF has scored a victory over the ANC with the stepping down of Nhlanhla Nene<\/a><\/strong>, analysts say, with it looking like the ruling party acceded to the red berets&#8217; calls to have him removed. The party now <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/mg.co.za\/article\/2018-10-09-more-heads-must-roll-eff\">has other ministers set in its sights, including Bathabile Dlamini, Malusi Gigaba<\/a><\/strong>. [Mail &amp; Guardian, 702]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.iol.co.za\/business-report\/companies\/mtn-in-bank-talks-on-payback-17420015\">MTN has reportedly met with Nigerian authorities and the central bank to address the $8.1 billion the country says MTN owes it.<\/a><\/strong> While MTN has declined to comment at this stage, analysts say that it&#8217;s indicative of pressure from investors both inside Nigeria and internationally. [IOL]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>South Africa\u2019s rand climbed to a session best on Tuesday after President Cyril Ramaphosa appointed former central bank governor Tito Mboweni as finance minister, a move that soothed markets after days of uncertainty. <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.xe.com\/currencyconverter\/convert\/?Amount=1&amp;From=USD&amp;To=ZAR\">On Wednesday the rand was trading at R14.53 to the dollar, R19.14 to the pound and R16.73 to the euro.<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>New finance minister, same old problems; Gigaba denies helping the Guptas in any way, in any context; Nene&#8217;s stepping down is being chalked up as a victory for the EFF &#8211; and now other ministers are in the crosshairs; MTN is in talks with Nigerian authorities as investors panic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":168963,"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-276353","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\/276353","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=276353"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276353\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":276357,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276353\/revisions\/276357"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/168963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=276353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=276353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=276353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}