{"id":338905,"date":"2019-09-05T07:06:47","date_gmt":"2019-09-05T05:06:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=338905"},"modified":"2019-09-05T07:06:47","modified_gmt":"2019-09-05T05:06:47","slug":"5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-630","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/338905\/5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-630\/","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:\/\/af.reuters.com\/article\/southAfricaNews\/idAFL5N25V5LS\">South African business leaders have urged President Cyril Ramaphosa to push through reforms faster<\/a> <\/strong>to boost the economy and curb investment outflows, as executives and policymakers gathered for a continental economic summit. Frustration is building in South Africa. Ramaphosa has promised sweeping reforms, but growth remains below 1% a year and investors dumped R63 billion of its assets this year. [Reuters]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Violent protests against foreign nationals continued overnight in South Africa, with looting continuing in city centres. Organisations have warned that on top of the social impact of the attacks, continued <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.iol.co.za\/business-report\/economy\/xenophobic-violence-destroys-the-economy-agrisa-31862641\">rioting is also destroying the economy<\/a><\/strong>, and <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/ewn.co.za\/2019\/09\/05\/dirco-assessing-damage-to-nigeria-embassy-after-xenophobia-retaliation-attack\">creating international diplomacy challenges<\/a><\/strong>. Citizens in Nigeria have retaliated against South African companies, as well as the South African embassies. [IOL, EWN]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Discovery says that the debate around the NHI is just starting, and that there is still a lot of room for private healthcare and medical aids to give constructive input into the process. CEO Adrian Gore says that <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.702.co.za\/articles\/359847\/there-is-a-need-for-a-private-system-that-works-with-and-around-the-nhi\">private healthcare is needed as a &#8216;safety valve&#8217; for things like the NHI<\/a><\/strong>, and that there is space for medical aids to work with and around the NHI in the country. [702]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>A former SABC CEO has described how she was taken to the Guptas&#8217; Saxonwold mansion when she was first put into the position &#8211; <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.enca.com\/news\/ex-sabc-ceo-describes-gupta-mansion-visit\">where she was greeted and congratulated by the family and Duduzane Zuma<\/a><\/strong>. In other state capture news, the former minister who admitted to abusing his power to allow the Guptas to land at Waterkloof air base <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.timeslive.co.za\/politics\/2019-09-04-jacob-zumas-waterkloof-scapegoat-falls-on-his-sword\/\">has resigned from public service entirely<\/a><\/strong>. [Enca, TimesLive]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>The rand is rapidly gaining ground against major currencies, setting its sights on the next key level of R14.67\/$, supported by strong local GDP growth and subdued data from the US, where modest growth is coupled with mixed signals from consumer spending. <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.xe.com\/currencyconverter\/convert\/?Amount=1&amp;From=USD&amp;To=ZAR\">On Thursday the rand is trading at R14.75 to the dollar, R18.06 to the pound and R16.27 to the euro.<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Business urge Ramaphosa to work faster to reform the economy; violent protests against foreign nationals continue; Discovery says the debate on NHI is only starting; and the Guptas&#8217; name still a key feature in the state capture commission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":302136,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872,23],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-338905","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\/338905","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=338905"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338905\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":338909,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338905\/revisions\/338909"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/302136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=338905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=338905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=338905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}