{"id":324327,"date":"2019-06-20T07:26:59","date_gmt":"2019-06-20T05:26:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=324327"},"modified":"2019-06-20T07:26:59","modified_gmt":"2019-06-20T05:26:59","slug":"5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-576","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/324327\/5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-576\/","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:\/\/www.enca.com\/news\/sona-to-cost-almost-r2m-the-lowest-in-years\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">All eyes are on this evening&#8217;s State of the Nation (Sona) address where President Ramaphosa is expected to make announcements on the future of Eskom and SAA<\/a><\/strong>. This year&#8217;s Sona will cost just under R2 million, the lowest in five years, as parliament has promised to cut down on costs amid &#8216;tough economic challenges&#8217;. [eNCA]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2019-06-19\/zuma-allies-get-top-south-african-posts-in-setback-for-ramaphosa\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Former South African President Jacob Zuma\u2019s allies secured several top posts in the nation\u2019s parliament in a blow to his successor Cyril Ramaphosa\u2019s efforts to clean up the government<\/a><\/strong>. In his announcement, secretary-general Ace Magashule called the nominations a collective decision. [Bloomberg]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.moneyweb.co.za\/news\/south-africa\/gugulethu-entrepreneurs-claim-nedbank-stole-their-patented-card-blocking-system\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">A pair of entrepreneurs from Gugulethu have accused Nedbank of stealing their patented IT system<\/a><\/strong>. The system allows customers to block bank cards that are suspected of being used for fraud, with the pair demanding more than R280 million in damages. [Moneyweb]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.businesslive.co.za\/bd\/national\/2019-06-20-jacob-zuma-may-have-to-use-legal-aid-lawyer\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Former president Jacob Zuma is so short of cash that he has begun selling clothes to pay his lawyers, and may ultimately have to rely on the assistance of legal aid<\/a><\/strong>. This comes after the court dismissed his latest request for leave to appeal against the finding that he was not entitled to state funding of his defence costs. [BusinessDay]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>The Federal Reserve kept interest rates on hold at 2.5% last night, in line with expectations, but noted that a rate cut as steep as 0.5% could be on the cards towards the end of the year, its most dovish stance in over a decade. The rand strengthened, gaining a total of just over 1%. <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.xe.com\/currencyconverter\/convert\/?Amount=1&amp;From=USD&amp;To=ZAR\">On Thursday, the rand was at R14.31 to the dollar, R18.15 to the pound and R16.12 to the euro.<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>All eyes are on Ramaphosa&#8217;s state of the nation address; Zuma says he is so broke he may have to use a legal aid lawyer; there are concerns about the new parliamentary nominations; and two entrepreneurs are going after Nedbank for stealing their idea. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":297616,"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-324327","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\/324327","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=324327"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324327\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":324341,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324327\/revisions\/324341"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/297616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=324327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=324327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=324327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}