{"id":339171,"date":"2019-09-06T07:25:17","date_gmt":"2019-09-06T05:25:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=339171"},"modified":"2019-09-06T07:25:17","modified_gmt":"2019-09-06T05:25:17","slug":"5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-631","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/339171\/5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-631\/","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>South Africa may have reversed the damage done in the first quarter in terms of GDP growth &#8211; <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.moneyweb.co.za\/news\/companies-and-deals\/ceos-say-sa-is-years-from-meaningful-economic-recovery\/\">but the country is still years away from staging any sort of recovery, according to finance CEOs.<\/a><\/strong> The country&#8217;s economic crisis is now &#8220;beyond urgent&#8221; and more needs to be done to spur growth. But even if everything that can be done is done &#8211; and done right &#8211; we&#8217;re still looking at about 5 years to recovery. [Moneyweb]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.timeslive.co.za\/politics\/2019-09-06-jail-them-for-life-cyril-vows-to-get-tough-on-gender-based-violence\/\">President Cyril Ramaphosa says he wants to overhaul the punishment for those who use acts of violence against women in the country<\/a> <\/strong>&#8211; specifically seeking life in prison, and no bail for those on trial for rape. He also wants to modernise South Africa&#8217;s sex offender register, and to make the register public. He was speaking after thousands tool to the streets in protest against a string of brutal attacks against women in South Africa. [TimesLive]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>As South Africa&#8217;s attacks against foreign nationals continues to draw the ire of other African nations, <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/city-press.news24.com\/News\/fake-news-is-making-matters-worse-david-makhura-on-violence-in-gauteng-20190905\">Gauteng Premier David Makhura has warned against fake news posts which are making the situation worse.<\/a><\/strong> From unrelated or past images and videos being circulated as if they are current, to messages claiming to be from authorities &#8211; often creating further panic &#8211; he warned people to be vigilant. Over 420 arrests have been made. [News24]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.enca.com\/news\/judgment-expected-jacob-zuma-defamation-case\">Former president Jacob Zuma is expected to hear the outcome of the defamation case brought<\/a><\/strong> against him by former minister Derek Hanekom, over the Zuma&#8217;s claims that Hanekom is a &#8216;known agent&#8217;. Hanekom is demanding R500,000 in damages for Zuma&#8217;s allegation, which he interpreted as Zuma calling him an apartheid spy. Hanekom met with opposition leaders in a big to try and get Zuma removed. [Enca]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>South Africa\u2019s rand weakened on Thursday after data showed the current account deficit widened in the second quarter from the first, dampening positive economic momentum generated on Tuesday by data showing GDP grew more than forecast. <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.xe.com\/currencyconverter\/convert\/?Amount=1&amp;From=USD&amp;To=ZAR\">On Friday the rand was at R14.88 to the dollar, R18.34 to the pound and R16.42 to the euro.<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>South Africa is about 5 years away from economic recovery; Ramaphosa calls for criminals convicted of violence against women and children to be jailed for life; fake news is making tension between South Africa and other African nations far worse; and Zuma expected to hear the outcome of the defamation case against him today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":295804,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11121,23],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-339171","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\/339171","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=339171"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339171\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":339177,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339171\/revisions\/339177"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/295804"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=339171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=339171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=339171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}