{"id":643057,"date":"2022-11-15T08:04:46","date_gmt":"2022-11-15T06:04:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=643057"},"modified":"2022-11-15T08:04:46","modified_gmt":"2022-11-15T06:04:46","slug":"5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-1408","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/643057\/5-important-things-happening-in-south-africa-today-1408\/","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<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>SAA problems:<\/strong> Gidon Novick has resigned as the CEO and board member of a consortium that plans to buy 51% of SAA. Novick was frustrated by being &#8220;kept in the dark&#8221; about important information on the deal 18 months after it was announced. But other consortium shareholders have accused him of a potential conflict of interest. Novick is a former co-CEO of kulula.com and co-founder of LIFT. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymaverick.co.za\/article\/2022-11-14-saa-privatisation-in-a-tailspin-as-key-player-gidon-novick-resigns\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Daily Maverick<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Liar, liar:<\/strong> According to a new survey by global data analytics company FICO, about 40% of South Africans see no problem committing first-party fraud by lying about their income when applying for loans, cell phone contracts, vehicle finance or a mortgage. The same can be said about exaggerating the value of property in an insurance claim and even, to a lesser extent, adding items to such a claim that weren&#8217;t lost, stolen, or damaged. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.businessinsider.co.za\/south-africans-lie-about-income-to-get-credit-and-insurance-claims-2022-11\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Business Insider<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Dis-Chem loses<\/strong>: Dis-Chem has lost R1.9 billion in value since a leaked letter from CEO Ivan Saltzman revealed a moratorium on employing or promoting white people. &#8220;We have seen our growth trend reverse from 17 October to 24 October when looking at daily sales numbers following the leaking of the memo,&#8221; said Dis-Chem CEO Rui Morais. [<a href=\"https:\/\/dailyinvestor.com\/retail\/5470\/dis-chem-loses-r1-9-billion-after-no-whites-letter\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Daily Investor<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Ghost employees: <\/strong>At least 1,400 employees working at the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) can&#8217;t be verified, according to Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula<strong>. <\/strong>These are workers who earn a salary but never physically clock in or sometimes prove to be fake. Mbalula says this results from lousy management at Prasa, and efforts to resolve the issue will include working with other government departments to verify credentials and digitise staff information. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.enca.com\/news\/least-1400-ghost-employees-prasa-mbalula\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">eNCA<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Markets<\/strong>:\u00a0 The South African rand was flat on Monday (14 November), with analysts saying credit rating reviews and retail sales data would be among the leading domestic drivers this week. This week, rating agencies S&amp;P Global and Moody&#8217;s are scheduled to review South Africa&#8217;s sovereign credit ratings, with their decisions expected on Friday. On Tuesday (15 November), the rand was trading at R17.27\/$, R17.83\/\u20ac and R20.33\/\u00a3. Brent crude is trading at $92.78 a barrel. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nasdaq.com\/articles\/south-african-rand-flat-focus-on-ratings-and-retail-sales-this-week\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Nasdaq<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Key board member of a consortium that plans to buy 51% of SAA has resigned; many South Africans see no problem in committing first-party fraud; Dis-Chem loses billions after leaked moratorium on employing or promoting white people; and the government is paying thousands of ghost employees at Prasa. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":289064,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-643057","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643057","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=643057"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643057\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":643077,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643057\/revisions\/643077"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/289064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=643057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=643057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=643057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}