{"id":329947,"date":"2019-07-18T06:56:58","date_gmt":"2019-07-18T04:56:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=329947"},"modified":"2019-07-18T06:56:58","modified_gmt":"2019-07-18T04:56:58","slug":"5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-596","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/329947\/5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-596\/","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>Former president Jacob Zuma&#8217;s testimony before the state capture commission has been cut short, with <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.iol.co.za\/news\/politics\/false-pretences-and-denial-drama-as-zondo-commission-adjourned-29380357\">the process being delayed to Friday after the Zuma&#8217;s team took exception to the line of questioning, saying that it was &#8220;unfair&#8221;<\/a><\/strong>. Zuma&#8217;s team said the former president had been lured to the commission under false pretences &#8211; and <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/ewn.co.za\/2019\/07\/17\/behind-the-scenes-talks-to-determine-if-zuma-resumes-state-capture-testimony\">behind the scenes discussions are taking place<\/a><\/strong> to determine if he will continue. [IOL, EWN]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymaverick.co.za\/article\/2019-07-18-high-court-judgment-bolsters-pravin-gordhans-case-against-public-protector\/\">Public Enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan has been handed a boon in his legal battle against public protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane<\/a><\/strong>, with a new reportable High Court ruling effectively placing the Nugent Commission into the debunked SARS rogue unit as the authority on the matter. The Nugent Commission found that the unit was set up lawfully, and allegations of it being rogue are without factual basis. This is counter to Mkhwebane&#8217;s report. [Daily Maverick]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>President <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.enca.com\/news\/parties-go-tit-tat-budget-vote\">Ramaphosa has committed to reeling in his executive, saying that they must reel in their spending, and use of blue light motorcades and the lik<\/a><\/strong>e. He said that government has not been functioning optimally and said work is being done to correct this. He also assured he would not follow the path of his predecessor and perform a lot of disruptive cabinet reshuffles. [ENCA]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>While the Reserve Bank&#8217;s Monetary Policy Committee is<strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.702.co.za\/articles\/355127\/we-expect-an-interest-rate-cut-on-thursday-but-it-won-t-help-the-economy-much\"> expected today to a deliver a 25 basis point cut in the prime lending rate, not all economists are convinced it will do much to spur economic growth<\/a><\/strong>. Some economists have called for an even bigger cut, but this could see the rand come under pressure as a result, others have warned. [702]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>South Africa\u2019s rand edged lower on Wednesday in cautious trade ahead of an interest rate decision that is set to test the currency\u2019s recent rally and its ability to draw yield-seeking investors. <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.xe.com\/currencyconverter\/convert\/?Amount=1&amp;From=USD&amp;To=ZAR\">On Thursday the rand was at R14.00 to the dollar, R17,41 to the pound and R15.73 to the euro.<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Zuma cuts his time short at the state capture commission because he says its unfair; new court ruling could be a massive boon for Gordhan in his legal battle with Mkhwebane; Ramaphosa promises to fix up government&#8217;s shortcomings; and economists expect a rate cut today &#8211; but will it be the big boost we need?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":139895,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11121,23],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-329947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance","category-government","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329947","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=329947"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329947\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":329949,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329947\/revisions\/329949"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=329947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=329947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=329947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}