this is business live from bbc news with ben bland and aaron heslehurst. throwing out the junk. international investors go cold on south africa, as one of the continent's biggest economies moves from political to economic turmoil. live from london, that's our top story on 12th april. as south africa's battered economy tries to recover from a double downgrade, protesters are heading out on to the streets. we're live in johannesburg for this developing story. also in the programme, the bbc understands that the head of security at barclays is now facing an internal disciplinary probe over his part in a whistle—blowing inquiry. we will get all the news from the

markets. and we'll be getting the inside track on one start—up that is taking used batteries and giving them a second life. as the boss of united airlines, we wa nt to as the boss of united airlines, we want to know when have you wished you'd apologised sooner? just use the hashtag bbcbizlive. welcome to the programme. as south africa's president jacob zuma celebrates his 75th birthday, the festivities may be rather more low key than usual. in less than a week, the country's members of parliament are scheduled to hold a vote of no confidence against the president. why? it comes after he ousted some of his key political opponents in a recent cabinet reshuffle. today, members of the public are expected to take to the streets in protest at the move, but mr zuma's decision also has

big implications for the economy. south africa has been downgraded to "junk status" by two of the leading debt ratings agencies, fitch and s&p. they argue that the reshuffle will hamper the country's efforts to manage its finances. the government's debt pile continues to grow and the loss of its "investment grade" status could have a significant impact on south africa's ability to borrow money on international markets. it means that major institutions such as pension funds and hedge funds may be prevented from buying the country's debt. viv govender is in our johannesburg studio. she's a senior analyst for rand swiss. what is president zuma up to with all of this? why the moves? is he to blame with what's going on at the moment? yes. look, if you had to go and

basically do a prediction of why he's doing this, i think the general conspiracy theory is he is going to be out of power by december. he wa nts to be out of power by december. he wants to put his ex—wife into his position, both at the anc and in government afterwards and those basically would be in order to protect him from any kind of criminal prosecution thereafter. in order to achieve that goal of actually bringing his wife into power, you may need to indulge in patronage for his supporters and that could not be done with a finance minister in place because he would prevent some of the irregular expenditure that would be required to basically convince the supporters for both him and his wife in the coming election. 50 for both him and his wife in the coming election. so he's prepared to do all of that at the threat of

hammering the south africa's economy. unemployment is 25%. i mean that's a whooper at the moment. could that go higher of the back of what we're seeing at the moment? and 2596 what we're seeing at the moment? and 25% by the way is just the official number. if had the people who were already employed, it is probably in excess already employed, it is probably in excess of a0%. the problem that we have in south africa is that some people have been unemployed for a long period of time that the number of discouraged workers is probably 1596 of discouraged workers is probably 15% and maybe 20% of the total workforce, people that are sitting at home for two or three years and have given up the search for a job. if you included them, it would be in excess if you included them, it would be in excess of a0%. this would be a major impact on those workers. over the last couple of years the only real soui’ce last couple of years the only real source of long—term or formal sector employment in the country has been the public sector. if you look at the public sector. if you look at the public sector pay rolls they have been increasing over time. things such as social work and other

things come out as one of the top categories when we look at the employment numbers coming out. the private sector hasn't been as strong especially the mining sector has been under a great deal of pressure losing hundreds of thousands of workers over the last couple of decades. if you had the government unable to borrow money, firstly they couldn't spend as much as they would have to reduce the amount of workers in the public sector which would be quite difficult and the private sector as well is not out there really looking at employment opportunities. they are looking at cutting down on the number they have because of the regulations around labour, etcetera. viv, we appreciate your time. thank you forjoining us. and no doubt we will talk to you soon. in other news: the bbc understands that barclays's head of security is to face an internal investigation over his part in a whistle—blowing inquiry. troels oerting allegedly assisted the bank's boss, jes staley, in his attempts to unmask the author of an anonymous letter, which questioned the past conduct of a senior recruit. uk financial regulators are investigating the scandal

and we will be getting more on this from our markets guest, maike currie later. are we? i didn't know that! toshiba shares are down by nearly 2% in tokyo trade this morning. the japanese conglomerate could face delisting after it finally issued its earnings. but it was done without the endorsement of its auditor. toshiba is trying to sell its its crown jewel, the chip business, to offset huge losses from its us nuclear division, westinghouse. the head of united airlines has apologised for what he now describes as "the truly horrific removal" of a passenger from a flight on sunday. ceo oscar munoz at first told staff he stood by them, but with united's stock market valuation plummeting, he issued another statement saying

he was disturbed by the incident. we are looking at the business live page. check it out. we will talk about tesco later on. there is more on the barclays story. there is a full write up by simonjack explaining this line that the bank's head of security now faces investigation over this trying to unmask a whistle—blower.” investigation over this trying to unmask a whistle-blower. i want to do paint. i bought five meters of paint, £96 of that's about $140 for five litres! it says tensions are rising between

the owner of delux and elliott advisors. changes to a stamp duty loophole in hong kong have sent property shares reeling. sarah toms is in singapore. well, as you said hong kong, the hong kong government slapped a 15% tax on first time homeowners who are purchasing more than one flat at a time. so, what was happening was investors were coming in, snapping up investors were coming in, snapping up multiple units in one go to qualify for lower tax rates. these buyers were using one legal contract and they only had to pay 4% tax duty so now and they only had to pay 4% tax duty so now they are being charged the same 15% as someone buying a second property. there has been a lot of chinese capital snapping up some of the hong kong's best plots of land and at record—breaking prices and it has pushed home ownership out of the

reach of many people who live there and the government hopes that closing this loophole will help the average buyer, but of course, hong kong is one of the most expensive real estate markets in the world. sarah, thank you very much indeed. investors ducked for cover on wednesday as a drumbeat of alarming geo—political news sent the safe—haven yen and gold to five—month highs and yields on top—rated sovereign bonds to their lowest for the year so far. gold climbed as far as $1,280.30 at one stage, its highest since early november. the unease has tarnished an otherwise brightening outlook for global economic growth and has kept equities restrained. japan's nikkei feeling the pressure as a rising yen weighed on exporters‘ shares. let's look at european markets. shares are down in tesco and wh

smith. that's despite tesco reporting profits better than analyst expected and wh smith reporting a rise in profits as well. barclays shares recovering after their slight fall on tuesday. that's all to do with the news that the investigation involving the chief executive and how he handled a whistle—blowing situation. the bbc now understanding that the head of security at ba rclays faces an that the head of security at barclays faces an internal disciplinary probe over his part in that inquiry. here's what's ahead on wall street today. united airlines has been getting a lot of attention recently, but it will be another carrier that will be in the spotlight on wednesday. delta airlines will be reporting earnings, but don't expect them to be sky high. the number two us airline by passenger traffic for the second time in less than a month has lowered its forecast for passenger revenue.

now venezuela is due to make a $3 billion payment on its debt by wednesday and this would be yet another test for the country to stay solvent in the face of political unrest and low oil prices. and finally, the new york auto show kicks off with a media pre—view on wednesday. this comes as car sales in the us have gone flat after two consecutive years of record—breaking vehicle sales. maike currie is investment director at fidelity international. great timing. you're south african. we wa nt great timing. you're south african. we want to ask you about this — junk status by fich and standard and poors. that's what they have issued to south africa. junk status, just to south africa. junk status, just to explain, junk will make it awfully expensive for south africa

to service its debt and to borrow more money? absolutely. what investors demand they want a higher return to actually lend to a country. now, what has been interesting from an investment point of view is that despite the junk status investors have been piling into south african bonds so that's pushed up the price, the yields and the income return has fallen. now the income return has fallen. now the question is whether this is about the political reactions in south africa or whether this wb short—lived which i doubt. i think it is more symbolic of a broader optimism around emerging markets. so what would be interesting if you look at the performance of emerging markets since the beginning of the year, they're markets since the beginning of the year, they‘ re up markets since the beginning of the year, they're up over io%. they've performed twice as well as the us and wall street which has performed twice as well as london and the general consensus was a trump presidency would be bad news for emerging markets and the tightening by the fed would be bad. so it is interesting times. yes, indeed. i

wa nt to interesting times. yes, indeed. i want to turn our attention to ba rclays. want to turn our attention to barclays. the bbc understanding that the head of security is facing an internal probe. the shares have been ona internal probe. the shares have been on a roller—coaster. they seem to be recovering today? the interesting thing about the banks more generally is with inflation rising and the prospect of interest rates going up after yea rs of record prospect of interest rates going up after years of record low interest rates, that's good news for a bank's business model. that will bode well. of course, the whole whistle—blowing scandal is another cloud hanging over ba rclays. are you going to come back and take us are you going to come back and take us through the papers? the united boss gets around to saying the s word. still to come: charging into the future, we speak to the ceo of a company that's pioneering a way to make money by squeezing new life out of your old phone batteries. you're with business live from bbc news. let's talk about the tesco numbers.

food sales has helped push supermarket giant tesco to record results. like for like sales are up 0.9% — it's the first full year of growth since 2010 but profits are down after settling an accounting scandal with the serious fraud office with a £129 million fine. maureen hinton is from retail analysts, verdict. hey, maureen, do you think, it is a good number, but ben and i were looking at the share price of tesco, did you say1.8% looking at the share price of tesco, did you say 1.8% down? down nearly 296 did you say 1.8% down? down nearly 2% of the what's investors thinking here? i don't know to be quite honest. i think it is perhaps because the operating profit wasn't as high. they were hoping perhaps that it would go up to 1.3%, but the

business is doing really well. it is improving. the customer experience has improved. it is winning customers back. better availability. availability. the operating margin is improving. it doesn't make sense. it might be because of the booker acquisition, but i think there is a lot of growth opportunity with that because they're wholesalers and they can supply where all the growth is going at the moment which is through food service, through take—aways, we're changing our eating habits so they have got a good growth story there as well. it is the same actually. it tends to go down and go back up again the share price. it's facing some challenges, its reputation, it was dealing with that fine over the accounting scandal. it has potentially got a battle with suppliers over the increased costs being passed on because of the wea ker being passed on because of the weaker pound. yes, it had a couple of battles with unilever and

heineken more recently. because it has such big buying power, and perhaps because ceo dave lewis comes from a supplier background, it has good negotiating skills. thank you very much indeed, maureen from retail a nalyst very much indeed, maureen from retail analyst verdict. hsbc plans to become dementia friendly. i think this is a cracking story. they are outlining their plans today to becoming more dementia friendly bank. hsbc says it gets 3000 calls per month regarding power of attorney, which is a big issue for people suffering from dementia and their families. you're watching business live. our top story — south africa's presidentjacob zuma is facing increasing political and financial turmoil as the country's economy continues to falter. it may be his 75th birthday today but that won t stop huge protests

against his leadership that are expected to take place today. a quick look at how markets are faring. a firmer start to the trading day across europe. the main indices all in positive territory. that follows on from a more cautious day of trading in asia where investors responded to geopolitical moves with stuff going on around north korea and tensions between america and russia. the korean peninsular. that's sent goals to higher levels and safe haven bonds as well. currencies, the japanese yen, going into the swiss franc as well. japanese exporters don't like that. and now let's get the inside track on the business of batteries. nearly every one of us uses lithium ion batteries every day — they power our smartphones, gadgets, and now even some electric cars!

in fact, one report says the market for lithium ion batteries is expected to exceed $33 billion by 2019. but what happens when you get rid of your old phone or gadget? one start—up firm, called aceleron, takes these end—of—life batteries, and turns them into second—life battery packs for other applications. aceleron says its technology helps to reduce waste by re—using these batteries, and produces low cost energy storage for many societies. let's find out more, carlton cummings is co—founder of aceleron. i love this idea, great to have you here. for us dummies, like me! how does this work? do you take a laptop and electric batteries? that's right. we take batteries from consumer electronics, laptops and

stuff like that. we can also manage batteries all the way up to the electric vehicle. most of the time the batteries, even though the size or scale might be large, that chemistry is the same, so that's why we can chemistry is the same, so that's why we can work on small scale with la ptop we can work on small scale with laptop batteries and batteries all the way up to the electric vehicle. we identify the good ones, repackage them into batteries for other things, devices you would put your phone or tablet into, all the way up toa phone or tablet into, all the way up to a battery that plugs into your home. using examples, ifound to a battery that plugs into your home. using examples, i found this fascinating when we spoke before coming on air, these batteries still have charge in them. explain that. great have charge in them. explain that.l great example is the battery in your remote control. when it doesn't work for the remote control, you can put it in for the remote control, you can put itina for the remote control, you can put it in a clock and it works just fine. batteries don't die, they degrade. we need to know where they

are in their cycle and what they can be used for. the tragedy where we are right now, we take batteries when they are not good for their first application and we throw them away. the worst part is we don't have the recycling capacity to do that, so we have to export it, and it's very expensive. why would you export something that still has value, and that's where aceleron comes in the. if you have batteries that still have charge in them, why haven't manufacturers done something about this to make sure you can use the battery right up until when it is completely empty? typically that's when you get into the science of battery. you don't want to use the lithium battery all the way down to empty for its application. you could liberated from a laptop when it's done there and put it into a power bank and its fine. but we are stepping down the ladder. that's why a battery from a car would be at home power in your house. mobility

is one of the hardest things to do with a battery, so you could free up the battery. we have developed the technology to test it quickly and find what it can be used for. that's one of the reasons the industry hasn't done it, identifying the way to do it quickly. we developed the technology to do that. so that's what you've done? i like the phrase, "powered down to knackered" that must be a barbadian quote!|j "powered down to knackered" that must be a barbadian quote! i have been inspired by a lot of things going on. i come from a background in engineering. i worked as an engineer for a motorcycle in engineering. i worked as an engineerfor a motorcycle racing team. i also worked in renewable energy, coordinating solar installations. i had the insight from both worlds so i saw the opportunity with the electric car. when some of the cars are no longer useful, or when some of the

batteries are no longer useful for the car, there is still energy in there to power a home. why wouldn't we use there to power a home. why wouldn't we use that? you have been listed on the forbes magazine 30 under 30 list. it's a very high—profile thing. you also the shell entrepreneur of the year. have you had interest from investors? we had quite good interest. we always are happy to engage a couple of other persons and are happy to bring others into the team. the major thing is that a lot of these events and stuff have been able to get us the owners we need to do the job we wa nt to the owners we need to do the job we want to do. —— the onus we need. this interview has now powered down to knackered! you are only a very early start—up, it's a pleasure to meet you. you registered in august last year, so great stuff and best of luck, carlton cummings. in a moment we'll take a look through the usiness pages, but first, here's a quick reminder of how to get in touch with us. the business live page is where you

can stay ahead with all the day's breaking business news. we will keep you up—to—date with all the latest details with insight and analysis from the bbc pars team of editors right around the world. we want to hear from you. right around the world. we want to hearfrom you. get in right around the world. we want to hear from you. get in touch on the bbc live web page. we also on twitter and facebook. on tv and online, wherever you need to know. sorry seems to be the hardest word. the united airlines boss has finally said it. we can start with that one. it was a pr disaster. it was. it's a lesson in poor public relations and the power of social media. we had every the power of social media. we had evei’y man the power of social media. we had every man and his dog watching this video of the horrific incident. then

we saw video of the horrific incident. then we saw the letter the chief executive sent to employees backing up executive sent to employees backing up the behaviour of the crew being circulated. in china there was a report distributed by millions of chinese readers saying the man was targeted for being chinese. all of this, the chief executive has only just come out now with a statement. it's a sorry piece of paper, when he should have been out there immediately with a genuine apology. this type of thing can destroy a big company's this type of thing can destroy a big compa ny‘s brand within this type of thing can destroy a big company's brand within seconds. because of the power of social media. the chief executive needs to be out there with a bold and genuine apology across channels. be out there with a bold and genuine apology across channelslj be out there with a bold and genuine apology across channels. i was hearing, apparently last year this chief executive was named communicator of the year. the irony couldn't get worse. it is quite ironic. we have a couple of tweets. we asked if he would regretted not

apologising later. barry says he will immediately apologise and he's afraid it doesn't come across as sincere as it is. i want to talk about another executive change at uber. yet another one. what's going on? executive change at uber. yet another one. what's going 0mm ties nicely into the issue of how damaging negative publicity can be toa damaging negative publicity can be to a company. uber has struggled with a string of bad publicity disasters. its top pr person, who they recruited from google, has now left. what has happened at uber is that it has struggled to attract employees because of its reputation. onlyjoined in 2015 as well. thank you for coming in as always. time to wrap it up. we are out of time. more business news throughout the day and on the website. suchis

such is the way of it with today's weather, i could put two or three spheres behind me to explain what's going on. quite what you get with today's weather depends where you are in relation to a slow—moving weather front that spent all yesterday over a central quarter of scotland. wet and miserable there. it's moved overnight and will continue its southward progress through the afternoon. not too much rain to be had as we go through the afternoon. it starts off life across wales, through the midlands and over towards the humber. ahead of that we will have a bit of rain in the first pa rt will have a bit of rain in the first part of the day across parts of east anglia and lincolnshire. as we move the front further south, the rain becomes very patchy so that by mid—afternoon it will live through wales, the midlands and maybe

towards the wash. behind that, very little rain. sunny spells and showers and 10—16 is the mark. where we showers and 10—16 is the mark. where we have been of late. wednesday, a westerly run of breezes from the atlantic, bringing cloud from the word go into western parts and bits and pieces of showery rain across western areas. in the east, chilly start under clearer skies, but they will fill in through the day and you will fill in through the day and you will be robbed of sunshine in many areas through the afternoon. 11—14 for the most part, not spectacular but not bad for the part of year. on friday, after a dry enough start in the east, we might drag some rain for some everfurther the east, we might drag some rain for some ever further east. but it will not amount to much. temperatures between nine and 15. setting us up nicely for the easter weekend, which i don't think will be a write off by any means. as you would expect at this time of year, some variability about the quality

of weather. isobars tightly packed to start saturday across the north—east of scotland. blowing a gale in exposed areas. moving through the days, the fronts don't hang around. if you happen to see one, and! hang around. if you happen to see one, and i think there is a variability about the weather. here's the thing, easter day, 10—15, and wherever you spend it, i don't think it will be as mild as it was on christmas day. hello, it's wednesday, it's 9am. i'm victoria derbyshire and welcome to the programme. police are investigating a possible islamist link to the three explosions which hit the borussia dortmund team bus last night — that's according to german media reports. we will have the latest on the investigation and speak to people who were on the scene. translation: a letter was found near the blast scene. due to the ongoing investigation, i can't give more information. the authenticity is being investigated. also today, an exclusive interview with scottish

nurse pauline cafferkey, who tells us she's going to sierra leone where she contracted ebola, a disease which, twice, almost killed her. that's kind of where things started for me and i've had a terrible couple of years since then so it would be good