{"id":291774,"date":"2018-12-28T09:09:58","date_gmt":"2018-12-28T07:09:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=291774"},"modified":"2018-12-28T09:09:58","modified_gmt":"2018-12-28T07:09:58","slug":"5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-460","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/291774\/5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-460\/","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.businesslive.co.za\/bd\/economy\/2018-12-27-goverment-releases-nine-month-revenue-and-expenditure-figures\/\">The April VAT increase to 15% helped add R26 billion to this year&#8217;s tax haul<\/a><\/strong>, according to new figures released by National Treasury.\u00a0R305.2 billion was collected by Sars from personal income tax in the nine months to November &#8211; and R100.6 billion came from corporate tax. VAT brought in\u00a0R212.7 billion. [Business Day]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.iol.co.za\/news\/politics\/university-urged-to-dump-troubled-kpmg-18630671\">Despite its best efforts to salvage its reputation, troubles auditing firm KPMG is still getting the cold shoulder from companies and institutions<\/a><\/strong>, with a new university report urging it to drop the group as auditor. The report said there was a breakdown in confidence in the group. [IOL]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/ewn.co.za\/2018\/12\/28\/holidaymakers-returning-home-urged-to-be-safe-on-roads\">Traffic flow figures point to South Africans having much shorter holidays this year,<\/a><\/strong> as thousands of holidaymakers have started to pass through toll plazas, making their way back home already. Authorities have urged motorists to be safe on their return trips. [EWN]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.enca.com\/news\/occupyclifton-beach-protest-set-begin\">Activists are taking to Cape Town&#8217;s Clifton beaches today to protest after beachgoers were reportedly removed by private security this week.<\/a><\/strong> The activists claim the move was racially charged, and was an attempt by the wealthy residents to keep the beaches exclusive. [eNCA]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>South Africa\u2019s rand gained on Thursday against a dollar weakened by lingering concerns about the trade wrangle between the US and China, while stocks were lower as positive sentiment after an overnight rally faded.<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.xe.com\/currencyconverter\/convert\/?Amount=1&amp;From=USD&amp;To=ZAR\"> On Friday the rand was at R14.44 to the dollar, R18.29 to the pound and R16.55 to the euro.<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The 2018 VAT hike added R26 billion to SARS&#8217; tax haul; KPMG still under fire as university clients urged to drop them; South Africans are having a much shorter holiday this year as thousands head back home; and Clifton beach to be occupied by protesters today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":224458,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872,9876],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-291774","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-lifestyle","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291774","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=291774"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291774\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":291776,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291774\/revisions\/291776"}],"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=291774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=291774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=291774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}