--- title: "While you were sleeping: 4 April 2017" description: "S&P lowers SA in the junk pool, earthquake rocks Southern Africa, and hunt is on for St Petersburg attacker." type: "NewsArticle" publisher: "Daily Maverick" site: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za" section: "South Africa" author: "John Stupart" author_url: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/author/johnstupart/" canonical_url: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2017-04-04-while-you-were-sleeping-4-april-2017/" published: "2017-04-04T05:43:39" updated: "2017-04-04T05:43:40" lang: "en-ZA" word_count: 688 --- # While you were sleeping: 4 April 2017 > S&P lowers SA in the junk pool, earthquake rocks Southern Africa, and hunt is on for St Petersburg attacker. By John Stupart · Published 4 April 2017, 07:43 SAST · Updated 4 April 2017, 07:43 SAST ## Content **Tuesday, 4 April 2017** *“What's real and what's true aren't necessarily the same.”* **Salman Rushdie** ![Image](https://i2.createsend1.com/ei/d/0B/1F4/814/csimport/849x493q70Jillian-junk1.050402.jpg) STORY OF THE DAY [SA Inc, Junked: ‘This is the consequence of a government misbehaving’](http://subscriptions.touchbasepro.com/t/d-l-hkdkmd-l-u/) By JILLIAN GREEN South African banks lost R60-billion in the hours following President Jacob Zuma’s Cabinet reshuffle. But that is going to be minuscule compared to what the country stands to lose if the government does not respond appropriately to rating agency Standard & Poor’s (S&P’s) decision to downgrade South Africa to junk status. By JILLIAN GREEN. [S&P junk status D-Day arrives](http://subscriptions.touchbasepro.com/t/d-l-hkdkmd-l-o/) S&P's lowering of South Africa's credit rating to junk status sent the rand reeling even further. Today newly-deployed Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba will band together with former Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan to explain the situation. In the war for the country, the junk status was an unfortunate inevitability, it seems. The swiftness with which it arrived, however, may even have escaped Saxonwold's eyes. [Quake hits southern Africa](http://subscriptions.touchbasepro.com/t/d-l-hkdkmd-l-b/) If you were in Johannesburg you might have felt the earth shaking last night. Contrary to popular belief that this was the shock of the rand hitting rock bottom, a 6.5-magnitude earthquake struck Southern Africa. The epicentre appeared to be 238km north-west of Gaborone, in a low-populated area of Botswana. No fatalities were reported. [Hunt on for Russian blast attackers](http://subscriptions.touchbasepro.com/t/d-l-hkdkmd-l-n/) At least one suspect has been identified in the St Petersburg train attack. It killed 11 people, but an individual from Central Asia is believed to be the primary target. However, it is unclear whether the man died in the blast. President Donald Trump, meanwhile, has pledged his full support, whatever that might materially be, for President Vladimir Putin in dealing with the blast. [Tesla now second largest US auto maker](http://subscriptions.touchbasepro.com/t/d-l-hkdkmd-l-p/) Tesla Motors has usurped Ford to become the United States' second largest automobile company. Posting remarkable increases in vehicle sales amidst a general slump in American automobile purchases, the desire for green tech-enabled cars seems to have taken hold. — IN NUMBERS 29 The percentage of San Francisco's air pollution that comes from China. FACTS OF THE DAY Today is **Peace Day in Angola**. **Guinness World Records** no longer give awards to the world's fattest animals so as to avoid forced overeating. 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