{"id":337743,"date":"2019-08-30T07:05:52","date_gmt":"2019-08-30T05:05:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=337743"},"modified":"2019-08-30T07:05:52","modified_gmt":"2019-08-30T05:05:52","slug":"5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-626","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/337743\/5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-626\/","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.news24.com\/SouthAfrica\/News\/sa-cannot-afford-not-to-implement-nhi-mkhize-20190829\">Health minister Dr Zweli Mkhize is trying to allay fears about the National Health Insurance,<\/a> <\/strong>saying that it will be done affordably, reworking current budgets, and that the country cannot afford not to do it. He said that other countries implemented universal healthcare when they were in a worse position than South Africa, and ended up having some of the best healthcare in the world. More importantly, he said that South Africans have waited long enough. [News24]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Public protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane has withdrawn her appeal against a court order preventing her remedial action against Pravin Gordhan from being implemented. Mkhwebane did not provide a reason for the withdrawal, but has suffered several damaging court losses in almost every case she has pursued.<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/ewn.co.za\/2019\/08\/29\/busisiwe-mkhwebane-has-broader-strategy-in-pravin-gordhan-interdict-matter\"> Her office says the withdrawal is part of a broader litigation strategy, but could not be more specific.<\/a> <\/strong>[EWN]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Emerging markets, including South Africa, continue to suffer under less than ideal international conditions &#8211; headlined by an escalating trade war between the US and China.<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/af.reuters.com\/article\/southAfricaNews\/idAFL5N25P5PX\"> Investors have pulled R212 billion from emerging markets so far in August<\/a><\/strong>, the most since Donald Trump\u2019s US Presidential election win in November 2016. For South Africa, it is heading towards being the worst August in 21 years. [Reuters]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.enca.com\/news\/state-capture-witness-flees-south-africa\">A witness in the state capture commission has apparently fled South Africa in fear of her life<\/a><\/strong>, after police allegedly failed to take action on reports of threats and intimidation against her and her family. The witness testified against SA Express, and told of how her company was hijacked to launder money. Following her testimony, unknown men attempted to find her and break into her home. [ENCA]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>The South African rand firmed in afternoon trade on Thursday, supported by an improvement in investors\u2019 risk appetite, as talk of renewed U.S.-China trade negotiations calmed investor nerves. Stocks rose, led by retailers. <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.xe.com\/currencyconverter\/convert\/?Amount=1&amp;From=USD&amp;To=ZAR\">On Friday the rand was trading at R15.34 to the dollar, R18.68 to the pound and R16.95 to the euro.\u00a0<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Minister tries to allay fears about the NHI; public protector Busisiwe Mhwebane apparently has a broader strategy for taking on her critics in court; emerging markets bleed on Trump&#8217;s trade war; and a state capture witness has apparently fled the country fearing for her life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":332763,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872,23],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-337743","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\/337743","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=337743"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337743\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":337745,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337743\/revisions\/337745"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/332763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=337743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=337743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=337743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}