08/08/2017 BBC Business Live

Live from London, that's our top story.

Corruption, Recessions and unemployment have dogged

South Africa in recent years and today the man at the top

President Zuma could be forced to go in a secret parliamentary vote.

And money-laundering allegations that could lead to a theoretical

fine of close to $800 billion have lead to the boss of

Commonwealth Bank somewhat unsurprisingly losing his bonus.

And markets in Europe have started their trading day. Slightly down on

the day and we'll explain why. And we'll be getting

the inside track on the surprisingly profitable world of babaysitting

and the company that's trying to turn it from a job for students

into a global business. We want to know today which app

could you not live without? Let us know. Use the hashtag business live.

President Zuma of South Africa faces a no confidence vote in parliament

today and as it's being held in secret there's a real chance

that he could be kicked out of office by the end of the day.

Mr Zuma has survived no-confidence votes previously

but this time the stakes, both political and economic,

Mr Zuma has been under constant pressure over everything

from corruption allegations to a controversial cabinet

reshuffle that saw his widely respected finance minister,

That prompted two of the world's leading credit rating agencies;

Standard and Poor's and Fitch, to downgrade South Africa's credit

worthiness to junk hugely increasing borrowing costs

And in June South Africa once the continents largest economy fell

And figures out yesterday show the country's unemployment rate

remained unchanged at close to 28% in the second quarter.

That's about 6.2 million people out of work.

Dr Joachim Wehner is a South Africa expert

Nice to see you. Welcome to the programme. Running through some of

the background to this there. It's worth restating why South Africa is

in this position. The economic picture looks pretty dire right now?

That's true. And you have to see it in the context. For 20 years after

the end of apartheid, South Africa worked extremely hard to establish a

reputation for economic credibility and good economic management, for

short periods the first Finance Minister who Jacob Z uma fired

triggered the week in 2015 where South Africa went through three

Finance Ministers when the space of a few short days. So Mr Zuma has put

the credibility of South Africa at risk. How much of this can be blamed

on President Zuma? There are some factors that are out of his hands,

one can say, for example the drought. Successive droughts in

South Africa, weak global demand for mining output for example, that is

dampening prospects for the mining sector in South Africa. But the

ratings agencies have emphasised what they see as a major problem is

Mr Zuma's handling of the institutional framework for the

economic system and that has done a huge amount of damage in undermining

the credibility that so many Finance Ministers have worked hard over 20

years to establish. And so the uncertainty that now comes from this

vote, interesting that we heard over the weekend the vote will take place

in secret, that could affect the outcome significantly? That's very

true. It's probably the first time that there is a realistic chance

this might go through, this vote. It's probably not the most likely

outcome because the electoral system in South Africa is based on close

list proportional representation, that means MP who is sit in

Parliament, it's the African National Congress in particular. If

we get this vote today and he's ousted from office, the question I

suppose is who would replace them? Is there a willing candidate,

certainly from an economic point of view someone who would restore

credibility? I think you have put your finger on the right issue here.

Getting rid of Mr Zuma is only the very first step and a few questions

arise here - how long can he cling on to power? He's proven himself to

be extremely intelligent so it wouldn't surprise me if he stays

until 2019. The second question then arises who will replace him. There

is a struggle in the ANC now. A camp Mr Zuma's tried to Foster, a

successor, his former wife who would probably protect him once he leaves

office, make sure he's not exposed to legal proceedings or a more

reformer camp led by a current deputy President. Interesting times

certainly as far as the implications are concerned. Dr Joachim, really

good to see you, thank you very much.

Let's take a look at some of the other stories making the news.

The Google employee who wrote a memo critical of the firm's diversity

initiatives has been fired from the company.

A male software engineer argued the lack of women in top tech jobs

was due to biological differences between men and women.

Google's chief executive responded by saying the contents of the memo

are fair to debate but some of what was written

A Scottish comic book company has been bought

It's the first ever acquisition by Netflix but they haven't said giw

Millarworld is run by the Scottish writer

The deal gives Netflix access to a host of new characters

to develop films, TV series and children's shows.

The worlds biggest hotel chain Marriott is going to team up

with Alibaba to tap into the growing number of Chinese tourists.

Marriott International says the joint venture will allow Chinese

travellers to book rooms using Alibaba's travel website

Australia's Commonwealth Bank has scrapped its bosses bonus

for damaging the bank's reputation amid allegations it broke

money-laundering and counter-terrorism financing laws...

Hywel Griffith is in Sydney, Australia.

Hywel, this could be a humongous fine. Tell us more about this story?

Absolutely. Some of the numbers here are staggering. The bank is accused

of over 53,000 breaches of anti-money laundering laws and each

one of those could potentially carry a $14 million US Dollar fine. It's

accused of not making proper checks on intelligent money depositing

machines, the hole in the wall where you can put money in as well as take

it out. Customers are able to put in up to 200 high value notes but the

checks weren't being made, as they were meant to be, on the provenance

on the where that money was going to, so the money could be

transferred domestically or internationally without the checks

being made. The bank argues it's down to a single coding error,

saying they should only really face one fine. It's all going to be

decided in a federal court of claw. What has already been decide suicide

the bank's Chief Executive and board members are going to suffer

somewhat. The Chief Executive losing his bonus for this year, as will the

senior executives and the board members taking a cut in their pay.

But potentially the cost could be much greater in future, some

analysts predicting the whole decade of growth for the bank wiped out if

they face the maximum fine. Sounds very, very costly indeed. For now,

thank you very much. Let us show you how the day went in general in the

Asian markets. Japan taking a breather from the ten-year highs it

reached yesterday, whereas Hong Kong up nearly half a percent. That is

the night before, the Dow still going up-and-up above 22,000, way

above that now. It's quite interesting how that just doesn't

seem to end, that run on the share markets in the United States. Let's

move on to Europe very quickly. Lots of earnings coming out in Europe

still. Note as busy as last week. Standard Life reporting a rise in

profits, also we have ASOS talking about expansion in the US in

Atlanta. Retail sales falling though in the UK, so a flat day, if not a

downbeat day for Europe. And Michelle Fleury has

the details about what's ahead Jane Foley will join us later and

people will be tuning in to see what is said. Her message is likely to

emphasise that whilst the economy may not be overheating, the recovery

in the US is strong enough for it to consider another rate hike this

year. But will incoming economic data reinforce that argument? Two

pieces to watch this Tuesday is the case Schiller House Price index.

Uber's search for a new CEO meanwhile continues, after the

resignation of the CEO last week. There are a few in the running.

Joining us is Jane Foley, Senior Currency Strategist, at Rabobank.

Good morning, Jane. We picked this story up in Bloomberg. It's an

interesting problem to have. Warren Buffett has too much money. Why is

that news, we knew that already? ! But what is he going to do with it.

This is a problem. This is a company that doesn't pay dividends. He is a

pilot of cash. Cash doesn't earn much in terms of return. His problem

is where to invest. There is a small pool of companies he'd be willing to

consider. He's made the point that it would be much more fun if the

phone were to ring and business propositions were to fall his way,

but as it stands, there is some difficulty trying to know where to

put all of that money. Lovely to have that problem. This graph shows

how he's managed to rack up the money. 99.7 billion dollars at the

end of the second quarter. He's got all these great businesses making

money but he's notoriously picky? But you have to remember he's been

doing this for the best part of 50 years so this is a long-standing

investment but that is exactly right. He's very picky. Some

companies he owns are really well-known ones, Apple is another

one. He's been known to invest also in utilities. Texas and Rail Road

are a couple of them. Very picky, relatively diverse in that sense but

only a small amount of companies. We'll be back soon. Really

interesting stories to discuss with you later. If you are a parent, stay

with us. Intercontinental Hotels Group has

just reported an 8% jump in half year operating profit and we've been

speaking to their new boss. You're with Business

Live from BBC News. Retailers experienced slowing sales

last month as households reined in their spending amid mounting

pressure on their finances. According to the latest figures

from the British Retail Consortium and KPMG, sales grew by 0.9%

in July, down from 1.1% Theo Leggett is in our

Business Newsroom. They came from a strong set of

figures last year so this year it's hard to keep up? Yes, last year was

particularly strong. On the surface, these figures from this year don't

actually look too bad. They are showing slow but steady growth

throughout the year. What is worrying is, if you look beneath the

surface because nearly all of the growth was accounted for by sales of

food. In fact over the past three months taken as a whole, nonfood

sales have declined and when it comes to food sales, it's not about

more food being sold, it's about prices going up as well. That is

accounting for the increase. The broad picture there is not so good.

The BRC has a warning in all of this as well, saying that because real

wages are declining, there is a smaller pool of consumer wealth out

there to draw from and there's a lot of competition among retailers. That

is where it gets political because the BRC says given the outlook for

consumers is so tough, the Government needs to make sure it

keeps tariff free trade with the EU as a priority in Brexit talks.

Pretty much everybody is talking about what they want from Brexit

talks at the moment but that is the BRC's take on it. Also the issue of

online versus high street, bricks and clicks, you have got to be be

successful if both in this environment where it's getting

tougher in terms of people spending? Absolutely. That is what the best

retailers are doing. Over the past month, in-store shopping and online

retailing grew. If you look over the past three months, a slightly longer

time frame, then in-store sales have declined and declined by a

reasonable margin, whereas online sales have gone up by about 8% in

the same period, so online sales still growing.

For the rest of the business news, you can check out the web page. ASOS

spending $40 million on a new warehouse in Atlanta.

You're watching Business Live. Our top story:

The South African President, Jacob Zuma,

is facing one of the most testing episodes of his rule.

The speaker of parliament has announced that a no confidence vote

Pauline says, "I could live without them all, but Twitter keeps me

posted on a variety of stuff." Another viewer says "BBC News."

Another viewer says fit bit." What do you use the most? Twitter and the

BBC News app, of course. I'm a weather app person, but then you

have a dog and I have to walk regularly.

We use apps to solve all sorts of day to day problems.

Food delivery, taxi services and shopping.

But would you trust an app to find someone to look after your children?

Making sure children are looked after while you're working is a big

One charity found that 75% of parents would assess

their childcare before taking a new job or promotion.

The same survey found 30% of parents say they feel burnt

Some extra help can, of course, help with that.

For many parents, the biggest issue can be finding

Yoopies is a new start-up hoping to change all of this.

It's a website which connects parents

We have the boss with us. Benjamin thank you very much of thank you

very much indeed for coming into Business Live. Tell us how this

started. You're not a parent, are you? I'm not, but I have three

sisters and when I finished my studies two of them had become a

mother. I the couldn't have a proper dinner with them, there were always

childcare issues. I realised they only had two choices. Either they

rely on expensive agency or a local newspaper that was not trusted

enough to find a great sitter so then I realised there was a huge

opportunity to create a trustworthy environment for baby-sitting,

childcare and home care services. Let's talk about that trust.

Obviously the website then makes it easier to do verification checks,

criminal record checks, how does that work? All the sitters are

verified are DBS checked. We verify their ID and we use the power of

online social media for our usersment people can link their

Yoopies account to with their Facebook account and they can see

that any friends or friends of friends who already have recommended

a baby-sitter. So we check the word of mouth and we put it on the

internet. This started in France. You've spread across a lot of

Europe. You've bought a UK in the UK Find A Baby-sitter.com. Sour

aexpanding here as well. It is a really, really crowded market, not

just apps like yours, but many other Facebook pages or websites or online

services that provide everything you need if you are a parent including

baby-sitters. Sure, but we do provide a comprehensive service that

goes from finding the perfect match to online booking and payment. We

assist with all Government assistance. So basically you can

find a perfect sitter within ten minutes. We only have five persons

of our best sitters that are selected for emergency care and we

provide all the rest. So the people can find trustworthy people easy.

How do you make sure you get your money for your services provider? I

jumped on your website this morning and I searched for a baby-sitter for

me and gave it a test and a great baby-sitter was matched to me and I

sent her a message and she is a mile away from my house, I can meet her

for a coffee and decide what I want and I don't have to pay you. Most of

the times usually you want to talk to a few of them and we are charge a

monthly fee for people to actually get... I haven't met her yet. If we

get on, I don't really need to pay you a fee, do I? You have to pay a

fee at first to get unlimited contacts with our baby-sitters, our

nannies on the website. So you will have to pay first ?30 and then you

can actually meet with her and have great childcare for your kids. Not

just about Its childcare. It will let you find other things. Your plan

is to roll out into the workplace as well? Exactly. This is interesting.

It might moon you could get food delivered to our desk and book a

massage or get someone to take your dry cleaning and laundry. That's

part of the challenge of the productivity. If we are all busy

maybe being able to do that at the office? It is a difficult thing to

improve your work-life balance when you are in the company, imagine your

child is sick, you need to do a lot of things and companies need to

attract and retain talent. So we provide the platforms for cans and

for the employees in order to find great childcare and food delivery

and everything in a one stop shop platform where they can find trust

within the company because you can find a great profile that's been

recommended by your co-worker. Sally is laughing because this is what I

want! Ben is thinking, OK, I have my

massage, they deliver my bacon sandwich to my desk. You're living

in Havana! I have to talk to the BBC then for you! Thank you for your

time. It is great to meet you today. Let's turn from booking babysitters

to booking hotel rooms. The company behind brands

including Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn and InterContinental

says operating profits were up 8% in the first

half of this year. But the amount of money

InterContinental Hotels Group makes per room,

a really important measurement in the hotel business isn't

growing as fast as it was. The new boss is Keith Parr and he's

been telling me why. This industry grows two ways -

by adding rooms and by growing RevPAR and so we saw a softer second

quarter in RevPAR as did the rest of the industry principally driven

by the United States. That's a lot it do with the shifting

of the Easter holidays and also some slowlying in some

of the oil markets. Additionally we have a big

renovation programme going on in the US to add

in new guest rooms and public space design for our Holiday and Express

brand and that's been a bit of a headwind in the US,

but we're seeing strength through our markets like Europe

with RevPAR up over 6%. We saw RevPAR up in China,

over 4% leading to revenue growth So on a global basis,

we're seeing real strength It's what underpins our strong

performance in terms He was at the company for 25 years

and it was interesting to talk to him. I asked him what would you do

if you are the boss and he is the boss and he had a very kind of slick

answer, John Terry just keep the strategy." I was hoping for

something really radical. You never get that on results day. That's why

they have to do the Inside Track. Jane is here. This is a story we

picked out of the Washington Post. China, not President Trump, is

suddenly helping American steel. President Trump probably takes

credit for it, but it is other factors at play. This is an

interesting story. It does help correct the misconceptions that were

out there since the Trump presidential campaign and

particularly that very little of Chinese steel goes to the US. Trump

was talking about China dumping steel in the US. This report says

only 1% of US steel comes from China, but perhaps a big reason for

this story is that China is shutting down some of its very dirty plants.

They are producing less steel, but China is using up a lot of steel.

China is the biggest consumer of commodities in the world. It absorbs

iron ore and coal which make steel and it's doing a lot of

construction. Making a lot of buildings, residential and roads and

this is one of the ways it's doing it is taking up a lot of debt. But

it's absorbing a lot of these materials itself. The front of

today's Telegraph. British children must spend more time online so they

can save the country says spy chief. He was perhaps making parents feel

less guilty. It is all about balance. He said that maybe if we

are a little bit behind in terms of our digital rivals and therefore,

allowing children to explore the web more helps increase those skills

which might be good use or good for the country in the longer term, but

of course a lot of people said, no, no, it is the equivalent of jung

food for China etcetera, etcetera. Jane, what app can you not live

without? I like a bit of whatsapp. For me, it's the newspapers.

Interesting. Thanks, Jane. Nice to see you. Dominic says, "Whatsapp.

Staying in touch with friends and family." Yeah, I use that one a lot

too. We will see you tomorrow. Bye-bye.

Good morning. The unpleasant weather continues across England and Wales.

This morning we have had heavy rainfall around. Throughout this

afternoon further heavy showers