{"id":282702,"date":"2018-11-08T07:20:28","date_gmt":"2018-11-08T05:20:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=282702"},"modified":"2018-11-08T07:20:28","modified_gmt":"2018-11-08T05:20:28","slug":"5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-427","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/282702\/5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-427\/","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.iol.co.za\/news\/politics\/anc-will-moer-you-in-the-elections-says-nzimande-as-e-tolls-debate-heats-up-17811160\">Transport minister Blade Nzimande has reiterated that e-tolls are here and they are here to stay<\/a> <\/strong>&#8211; and warned political parties to stop using the system as a political tool to gain support. Nzimande said that while government could have done things differently, the fact remains that there is now debt, and it needs to be paid. E-tolls is how it will be paid. [IOL]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2018-11-07\/south-africa-s-high-speed-rail-network-seeks-cash-for-new-trains\">The Gautrain is looking for R4 billion to buy more trains and help with its 150km expansion plans.<\/a><\/strong> Government is planning to add to the 80km high-speed train network, with proposals stretching the network as far south-west as Soweto. [Bloomberg]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>The Public Protector is investigating public enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.businesslive.co.za\/bd\/national\/2018-11-07-public-protector-investigates-pravin-gordhan\/\">relating to the minister signing off on early retirement for former SARS deputy commissioner Ivan Pillay in 2010<\/a><\/strong>. The investigation was initiated by former president Zuma&#8217;s speechwriter. Gordhan said the investigation was frivolous and an abuse of power. [Business Day]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/af.reuters.com\/article\/commoditiesNews\/idAFL8N1XI6Q8\">MTN&#8217;s ongoing $10 billion mess in Nigeria could have severely damaging knock-on effect for the whole of South Africa, the Reserve Bank has warned.<\/a> <\/strong>The worst-case scenario would be MTN disinvesting in Nigeria, which analysts say could knock the rand hard, and lead to capital outflows. [Reuters]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>South Africa\u2019s rand firmed against a weaker dollar on Wednesday after US midterm elections split Congress, lowering the chance of any major US. fiscal policy boost soon. <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.xe.com\/currencyconverter\/convert\/?Amount=1&amp;From=USD&amp;To=ZAR\">On Thursday the rand was trading at R13.94 to the dollar, R18.29 to the pound and R15.92 to the euro.<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>E-tolls are here, and they&#8217;re here to stay, no matter what opposition parties say, Nzimande says; the Gautrain is looking for R4 billion to fund its expansion; Gordhan under investigation by the Public Protector &#8211; but he smells a rat; and MTN&#8217;s $10 billion Nigeria problems could have devastating consequences for SA.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":110153,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872,23],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-282702","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\/282702","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=282702"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282702\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":282708,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282702\/revisions\/282708"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/110153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=282702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=282702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=282702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}