{"id":302928,"date":"2019-03-04T06:37:37","date_gmt":"2019-03-04T04:37:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=302928"},"modified":"2019-03-04T06:37:37","modified_gmt":"2019-03-04T04:37:37","slug":"5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-505","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/302928\/5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-505\/","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>While Eskom continues to suffer a major liquidity crisis, illegal electricity syndicates continue to work inside and outside the company to keep illegal connections alive. <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/ewn.co.za\/2019\/03\/04\/exclusive-eskom-employee-makes-r20k-per-month-on-illegal-power-connections\">These syndicates re-connect lines that have been cut off due to non-payment<\/a><\/strong>. [EWN]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.news24.com\/SouthAfrica\/News\/anc-denies-meeting-with-sabc-editors-was-bullying-20190303\">The ANC has denied that it has been bullying the SABC<\/a><\/strong>, saying weekend reports about a meeting it had with the broadcaster was pushing a false narrative. The party said it meets with all broadcasters to discuss coverage, and last Friday&#8217;s meeting was business as usual. [News24]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.businesslive.co.za\/bd\/companies\/retail-and-consumer\/2019-03-04-edcon-ceo-says-focus-is-now-on-fixing-the-business\/\">Edcon says that after its R2.7 billion lifeline from stakeholders, it can now improve its business and become more competitive.<\/a><\/strong> CEO Grant Pattison said the group will reduce its retail footprint by a third, and move to sell more profitable ranges. [Business Day]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/city-press.news24.com\/News\/the-guptas-last-heist-take-r1bn-out-of-sa-20190304\">The Guptas are allegedly trying to pull one last R1 billion out of South Africa<\/a><\/strong>, with a business tied to them through marriage, fighting to have its stake in Optimum coal mines secured. The business is reportedly 50% owned by the man who married the Guptas&#8217; niece in the infamous 2013 Sun City wedding. [City Press]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>The South African rand extended losses against a stronger dollar on Friday, after breaching the R14.00 to the dollar mark in the previous session, as doubts over the fate of a US-China deal. <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.xe.com\/currencyconverter\/convert\/?Amount=1&amp;From=USD&amp;To=ZAR\">On Monday the rand was at R14.17 to the dollar, R18.76 to the pound and R16.10 to the euro.<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Illegal electricity connection syndicates are pulling a fast one on Eskom &#8211; from the inside; the ANC denies bullying and making demands on the SABC; Edcon says it will now be able to fix its business and compete; and Gupta links are allegedly trying to pull another R1 billion out of South Africa.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":75316,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872,23],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-302928","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\/302928","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=302928"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302928\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":302930,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302928\/revisions\/302930"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=302928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=302928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=302928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}