{"id":341115,"date":"2019-09-16T07:07:55","date_gmt":"2019-09-16T05:07:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=341115"},"modified":"2019-09-16T07:07:55","modified_gmt":"2019-09-16T05:07:55","slug":"5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-637","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/341115\/5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-637\/","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 Africans are likely to feel the impact of a recent attack on oil facilities in Saudi Arabia, <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/ewn.co.za\/2019\/09\/16\/explainer-attack-on-saudi-leaves-world-without-spare-oil-capacity\">which has left the world with fewer oil reserves, sending oil prices surging.<\/a> <\/strong>Brent crude surged from 60$ a barrel to $67 a barrel. Upward movement in oil prices over sustained periods leads to higher costs in petroleum products, likely to push local petrol prices higher. <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/energy\/340959\/here-is-the-expected-petrol-price-for-october-2\/\">Before the attack, SA motorists were expecting a small price drop in petrol.<\/a><\/strong> [EWN, BusinessTech]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Old Mutual chair, Trevor Manuel, has defended the board&#8217;s actions taken against CEO Peter Moyo, saying it has handled the situation as best it could. The board has fired Moyo twice, with ongoing legal proceedings preventing the company from replacing him. <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymaverick.co.za\/article\/2019-09-15-manuel-spurns-old-mutual-shareholder-calls-to-step-down-over-moyo-fiasco\/\">Manuel has rejected calls from a minority shareholder that he and the board resign, and threatened to litigate until Moyo ran out of money to challenge them<\/a><\/strong>. [Daily Maverick]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/mg.co.za\/article\/2019-09-13-00-millions-lost-and-now-more-vbs-liquidations\">Two companies linked to a former KPMG partner face closure after failing to repay R28 million in loans from VBS bank.<\/a><\/strong> The partner was fired from KPMG after it was found that he overlooked a R1 billion cash shortfall at VBS bank during the looting scandal. It was found during the investigation of the scandal that he benefitted tot he tune of R28 million paid to these two companies, where his wife is listed as sole director. [Mail &amp; Guardian]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>The Western Cape government has requested that the South African National Defence Force have their stay in Cape Town extended to keep assisting with the high levels of violent crimes taking place in the city. <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.702.co.za\/articles\/360847\/army-should-only-stay-on-cape-flats-if-police-have-crime-intelligence-plan\">However, a defence analyst says that the SANDF will only be effective in helping if there is a proper plan of action in place.<\/a><\/strong> The army&#8217;s two-month presence in the region ends today. [702]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>The rand held its own in recent sessions, moving as strong as R14.53\/$ at one stage. The dominant theme remains a risk-on environment, bolstering appetite for emerging market assets. It\u2019s a big week ahead for markets as we gear up for the Fed and local interest rate announcements. <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.xe.com\/currencyconverter\/convert\/?Amount=1&amp;From=USD&amp;To=ZAR\">On Monday the rand was at R14.64 to the dollar, R18.25 to the pound and R16.22 to the euro.<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Attacks on Saudi oil facilities could push SA petrol prices higher; Old Mutual chair Trevor Manuel speaks out on Moyo; two companies linked to the former KPMG partner involved with the VBS looting face liquidation; and the WC government wants the army to stay &#8211; but do they have a plan of action?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":274449,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9874,23],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-341115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-energy","category-government","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341115","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=341115"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341115\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":341121,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341115\/revisions\/341121"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/274449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=341115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=341115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=341115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}