{"id":343249,"date":"2019-09-27T07:06:18","date_gmt":"2019-09-27T05:06:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=343249"},"modified":"2019-09-27T07:06:18","modified_gmt":"2019-09-27T05:06:18","slug":"5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-645","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/343249\/5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-645\/","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:\/\/ewn.co.za\/2019\/09\/27\/ramaphosa-business-leaders-discuss-ways-to-boost-economy\">President Cyril Ramaphosa has met with business leaders, including those from the country&#8217;s major banks<\/a><\/strong>, to discuss way to stimulate the South African economy. The meeting was requested by the business leaders. Ramaphosa has agreed to fast-track some economic reforms for economic recovery, but also conveyed that a turnaround would take some time. [EWN]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2019-09-26\/eskom-s-ceo-shortlist-candidates-include-former-executive-maroga\">Eskom is close to selecting a new CEO<\/a><\/strong>, according to sources, with three people shortlisted to take over the top spot of the struggling state-owned power utility. Of the three people shortlisted, only two have been identified: Eskom engineer Andy Calitz, and former Eskom boss Jacob Maroga. Eskom&#8217;s recruitment process will end on 31 October. [Bloomberg]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>After denying that his luxury SUV was bought with money from VBS Bank,<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/mg.co.za\/article\/2019-09-26-vbss-r680k-paid-for-floyds-wheels\"> EFF deputy Floyd Shivambu has now admitted that he did receive R680,000 from his brother to pay for the car.<\/a> <\/strong>However, Shivambu says the money was part of R4 million in loans that his brother received, and has subsequently paid back. A report into the looting of R2 billion from VBS found that Brian Shivambu received R1.6 million &#8211; separate from the loans &#8211; in dodgy payments. [M&amp;G]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>The South African banking strike is still on the cards for the coming weeks, with unions promising to get the necessary approvals in place to take to the streets in protest of retrenchments in the banking sector. Business Unity South Africa, which successfully halted the strike, says that <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/city-press.news24.com\/News\/economically-vulnerable-would-have-been-most-affected-by-bank-strike-20190926\">the planned industrial action is self-defeating, as small businesses which create jobs will be negatively impacted, as will the economy, and South Africa&#8217;s poorest.<\/a><\/strong> [City Press]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>South Africa\u2019s rand steadied against the dollar in afternoon trade on Thursday, after hitting a new three-week low earlier in the session as the greenback rose amid optimism over a trade deal between the United States and China. <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.xe.com\/currencyconverter\/convert\/?Amount=1&amp;From=USD&amp;To=ZAR\">On Friday the rand was at R15.03 to the dollar, R18.54 to the pound and R16.42 to the euro.<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ramaphosa meets with business leaders on plans to stimulate the economy; Eskom is close to choosing a new CEO; EFF deputy Floyd Shivambu changes his tune on the financing of his luxury cars; and the banking strike is still coming &#8211; even though it will hit SA&#8217;s poorest the hardest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":343251,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872,23],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-343249","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\/343249","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=343249"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343249\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":343253,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343249\/revisions\/343253"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/343251"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=343249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=343249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=343249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}