{"id":277265,"date":"2018-10-15T07:45:17","date_gmt":"2018-10-15T05:45:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=277265"},"modified":"2018-10-15T07:45:17","modified_gmt":"2018-10-15T05:45:17","slug":"5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-409","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/finance\/277265\/5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-409\/","title":{"rendered":"5 important things happening in South Africa today"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Here\u2019s what is happening in and affecting South Africa today:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/277243\/zuma-under-investigation-for-nkandla-home-loan-report\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Both president Cyril Ramaphosa and former president Jacob Zuma were dragged\u00a0into the VBS scandal this past weekend<\/a><\/strong>. Zuma is under investigation for failing to begin payment on his Nkandla &#8216;home loan&#8217; until after VBS had entered administration, while a City Press article claims that Ramaphosa and others in government knew about the VBS looting spree\u00a0 &#8211; and did nothing to stop it. [Sunday Times]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.enca.com\/news\/ramaphosa-gathers-legal-bodies-help-find-next-npa-head\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">President\u00a0Ramaphosa is seeking assistance in\u00a0appointing the next National Director of Public Prosecutions.<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0Ramaphosa has invited a number of legal organisations and independent public institutions to assist him in identifying and selecting individuals for consideration as possible candidates for the position. [eNCA]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/ewn.co.za\/2018\/10\/15\/moody-s-expected-to-release-sa-credit-rating-after-mtbps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Ratings agency Moody&#8217;s is now expected to release its statement on South Africa&#8217;s sovereign credit rating after finance minister Tito Mboweni\u00a0delivers his medium-term budget on 24 October<\/strong><\/a>.\u00a0The agency was expected to\u00a0release its rating on Friday. [EWN]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.iol.co.za\/weekend-argus\/news\/warning-of-second-increase-in-vat-17463363?utm_source=facebook&amp;utm_medium=social\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">South African consumers should also pay close attention to the medium-term budget speech, with tax experts warning that the country could see another\u00a0VAT increase in 2019.<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0Tax experts,\u00a0Mazars, said that there was a possibility that an increase in VAT could be introduced to make up for shortfalls in tax revenue. [IOL]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>The rand strengthened against major global currencies on Friday afternoon, buoyed by a global relief rally and a weakened dollar.\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.xe.com\/currencyconverter\/convert\/?Amount=1&amp;From=USD&amp;To=ZAR\">On Monday the rand was at R14.52 to the dollar, R19.03 to the pound and R16.77 to the euro.<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Another VAT increase a possibility in 2019; Zuma and Ramaphosa dragged into VBS scandal; South Africa is set to get a new national director for public prosecutions; and Moody&#8217;s will wait before giving its update on the country.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":224458,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11121],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-277265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277265","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=277265"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277265\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":277289,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277265\/revisions\/277289"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/224458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=277265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=277265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=277265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}