this is business live from bbc news with alice baxter and samantha simmonds. jubilation in south africa after president zuma's resignation — but will the economy follow suit? live from london, that's our top story on thursday, 15th february. the country's currency — the rand — has strengthened in the hopes mr. zuma would step down. now all eyes are on his successor. also in the programme — one of india's richest men is accused of swindling over a billion dollars from a state lender. we'll be in delhi to find out more. asian stocks rose on thursday after wall street brushed aside strong us inflation data and surged, in a move that also saw the dollar pinned to two—week lows. a sip in the right direction — keep cup is a reusable coffee

container that is cutting down on waste and making money by helping the environment. we'll find out more. and austria is banning the smoking ban. so would you avoid places where smoking is allowed or are you not that bothered? just use the hashtag bbcbizlive. hello and welcome to business live. south africa's beleaguered presidentjacob zuma has resigned with immediate effect — avoiding a no—confidence vote planned for today. he faced persistent allegations of corruption and will now be formally succeeded by cyril ramaphosa, the new leader of the anc. markets have reacted positively to the prospect of a new president. since the start of december, the south african rand has been the best performing currency out of all of the emerging economies—

here you can see the dollar declining against the strengthening rand. it rallied a further 2% on the news of mr zuma's resignation. many suggest mr zuma was not committed to serious economic reforms. gdp growth has slowed over the course of his tenure. unemployment has risen steadily over the last few years and could remain stubbornly high until the turn of the decade. let's hear the moment when president zuma announced he is stepping down. i have therefore come to the decision to resign as president of the republic with immediate effect. everyone though i disagree with the decision of the leadership, of my organisation, i have always been a disciplined member of the anc. as i

leave, i will continue to serve the people the people of. lerato mbele, our africa business correspondent is in johannesburg. welcome to you. so he is out, we are going to expect to have a new president today, with cyril ramaphosa sworn in possibly within a few hours‘ time. top of his list is going to be sorting out the economy, isn‘t it. what has he got to do first, do you think? well, after he is sworn in, it is about five days before the south african budgets for the new year is tabled, and many people are saying, that is really the event to watch, because as you know, yesterday south africa got its latest unemployment figures, they are still very very high, at 26%. that is a fifth or a quarter of the population rather, that cannot find job, and some of them have simply just stopped trying. we also are

facing a situation in south africa where two of the leading international credit ratings agencies have downgraded the country‘s sovereign debt to junk status, the only one who hasn‘t taken a stand yet is moody, and if the signs aren‘t promising it is expected that moody‘s willjoin in the fray. if that happens we can expect south africa to see capital outflow disinvestment and the prospects really for growth are going to look really dire. growth coming in ati.44% going to look really dire. growth coming in at i.a4% is what the central bank forecasts for 2018. what is he going to do to attract backin what is he going to do to attract back in vestment, do you think? well, we know that cyril ramaphosa is not just a well, we know that cyril ramaphosa is notjust a shrewd negotiator but he isa is notjust a shrewd negotiator but he is a renowned businessman. he is one of south africa‘s richest men, he has got assets in all sorts of sectors from mining to retail. media and also the food business. so what people really want is a safe pair of hands,is

people really want is a safe pair of hands, is what the investment community are saying, someone who understands how dealings are done, how they are negotiated. how policy serves both the people and the interests of business, how you incentivise that investment and basically they are hoping what he will do ultimately is just run a tight and clean ship, because corruption has really been the albatross round the government‘s neck over last few years. not all of his policies are entirely business friendly, are they? they? there are suggestions he wants to increase or change the plans on aggressive land reform policy. well, to be fair, they are not his policies. the african national congress is the party in government, they deploy a, into the executive and highest office of the land. they are not cyril ramaphosa ‘s policies they are the policies is of the government that has been elected by the people. what the anc has said to the south african is we promise you a radical

economic transformation, an overhaul ofan economic transformation, an overhaul of an economy that has led to the eigg highest unemployment rate, the widest inequalities between the rich and poor, and has really carried over many of the legacies of apartheid that has seen a small minority more privileged than the rest. pa rt of minority more privileged than the rest. part of this talk about aggressive land reform radical transformation, free education, having wider ownership of strategic assets in mining, is is really about creating an ebbing librium in the economy. if people see it as a radical many south africans see it asa radical many south africans see it as a necessary intervention to create more equitable society. is challenge is how they will do it in a delicate way that still says to the business community come and invest in south africa and says to the average south african person we have your interests at heart. good to see you.

thank thank you. let‘s take a look at some of the other stories making the news. european plane maker airbus has taken another $1.6 billion hit on its troubled a400m military transport plane. that takes charges on the troubled defence project to over eight billion euros so far. the news overshadowed otherwise upbeat full—year results. net profit increased 35% to almost $3.6 billion. amazon has announced it will create 2,000 permanent contract positions this year in france — its largest market in europe after britain and germany. the increase will bring amazon‘s total number of french staff to 7,500 in 2018. initial talks have been held on what could be the tech sector‘s biggest ever deal. qualcomm has confirmed it met with broadcom on wednesday to discuss the latter‘s revised 121 billion dollar bid. qualcomm‘s board will meet in march to determine the next step for the telecommunication equipment—making company india‘s second largest bank has

detected a $1.77 billion fraud coming from a single branch. and it‘s thought to involved billionaire and diamond merchant nirav modi. davina, what more do you have on this? well, definitely the day is not shining bright like a diamond for not shining bright like a diamond foermodi not shining bright like a diamond for mr modi here, what investigators have been able to find out so far, is that mr modi colluded with the punjab national bank employees to get fake bank guarantees, and because of those other banks were able to give him loans and it wasn‘t before seven years and $1.8 billion before seven years and $1.8 billion before this fraud has been detected. and now investigations are under way, we haven‘t heard from mr modi so way, we haven‘t heard from mr modi so far, we are hoping that there would be a statement soon, but

already pressure is building, because the agencies are now conducting searches across his offices in india. many thanks for that. asian shares including japan‘s nikkei share average rose significantly on thursday, as investors bought back some recently—battered stocks after the us markets climbed overnight, shrugging off stronger—than—expected inflation data. a total of 28 out of 33 sectors were in positive territory, with financial stocks and exporters outperforming, ignoring the strong yen. the dollar stretched overnight losses against the japanese yen to touch a 15—month low of 106.112, having declined more than 2% so far this week. hong kong stocks — they posted their third consecutive day of gains on thursday, when trading ended at midday before a long holiday. the blue—chip index, which on wednesday had its biggest single—day percentage rise since may 2016, climbed 5.5% this week.the

market is now closed on thursday afternoon for the lunar new year holiday — trading will resume on tuesday, feb. 20. here in europe, markets have opened. and yogita limaye has the details about what‘s ahead on wall street today. canada ease bombardier will release results for the last quarter of 2017 and the full year as well. they come $0011 and the full year as well. they come soon after the plane maker won a trade dispute against american firm boeing. a us trade body has allowed bombardier to sell its newest aircraft in this country without paying duties and investors will be watching for the company‘s forecast for 2018. a raft of economic data will be out as well, industrial production numbers will be released and we will find out how the producer price index is faring. which is a measure of wholesale inflation here in the us, it is likely to have gone up by 2.5% in january after dipping in december.

that will be in line with what he saw on wednesday, when data showed that consumer prices had risen. richard dunbar is investment director at aberdeen standard investments. good morning. we will talk first about the european growth numbers out yesterday, with i were pretty good. very strong growth. 2.596 in the fourth quarter and expectation in the yearahead. the fourth quarter and expectation in the year ahead. that is a change from what we were talking about about 18 mondays ago when there was worries about the crisis? the euro and worries in ireland, greece, portugal. we have steady growth fuelled by low interest growths and quantitative easing. good investment and exports so making a fairly potent cocktail. spanning all different sectors and like you say countries like spain, like italy, that we were talking about in worrying terms, suddenly coming out much better. germany particularly. fastest since 2007. the peripheral

countries like our london and, spain, portugal. they have taken some tough medicine, irish wages dropped, property prices halved. but that medicine appears to be working and we are seeing your real broad spread growth, albeit some of the problems we have spoken about are still there. high unemployment. still political turmoil in germany. elections in italy. so the worries are still there, but lots of growth which maybe, certainly more than we expected. let us talk about the us inflation figure, we were trying to anticipate what was going to happen with them and what knock—on effect. they will not had the impact many feared they would. there is a little more inflation about globally and particularly in the us than perhaps expected. that is what investors have been looking out for. more inflation means the central banks are going to be more aware. so more inflation in the us than expected

but the markets seems to have ignored that. we will see you later richard. still to come. can‘t live without your morning coffee, but you‘re worried about the environmental impact? we‘ll have a reusable option for you in a few minutes. you‘re with business live from bbc news. "shamelessly bamboozled" — that‘s how a parliamentary report has described members of the british steel workers pension scheme who were given unsuitable financial advice, leading some to lose out on thousands. it happened last year when tata restructured the british steel workers pension scheme, meaning its 124,000 members had to decide what to do with that money. thank you forjoining us, a very

strongly worded damning report here. yes, and rightly so, ithink, there we re yes, and rightly so, ithink, there were clearly some system failures here, the reports highlighted various things that could have been done differently to protect the worker, there was a particular set of circumstances towards the end of last year, where they had to make a fairly complex decision in a short period of time, their trust in the pension scheme had been undermined. they knew which ever of the two options they were being presented with, the replacement scheme or going into the lifeboat fund would have resulted in some loss of money for them, in that environment, unscrupulous advisers started knocking on their doors and offering them a third option, which would have involved transferring their money out of the pension schemes all together, into an individual pension and in the process, giving up the valuable guarantees they built up in the originalfinal valuable guarantees they built up in the original final salary scheme. some scheme members chose to take

that option, a couple of thousand of them, the transfer values were hundreds of thousands of pounds, but the fees the adviser were taking we re the fees the adviser were taking were clearly not appropriate for the circumstances, and so now, some of these steelworkers have found themselves out of possibility. the pensions regulator said it would try to protect savers, not doing a greatjob so far, what are they going to do? they will look up what they could have done differently because the situation will come up again ina because the situation will come up again in a different guise, the financial conduct authority is acknowledging there are things they could have done differently to tighten up on advice, and for the scheme members, this is a question of whether they can get compensation for bad advice. thank you, head of policy at hargreaves lansdown. standard life aberdeen loses a lloyd‘s contract, asset management

contract, more on that later. you‘re watching business live. our top story... south africa‘s presidentjacob zuma has resigned leaving cyril ramaphosa as the acting president. he‘s likely to be sworn in later on thursday or on friday. a quick look at how markets are faring. the european markets all opening in positive territory so far today. many of us can‘t start the day without one. 0ur morning cup of coffee has become a daily ritual, so much so that coffee is actually the most popular drink worldwide. i actually do not drink coffee, i drink tea. around 2 billion cups of coffee are consumed every day according to the british coffee association.

but our addiction to that cup ofjoe is having an adverse affect on the environment. while the average coffee cup is technically recyclable, they are lined with polyethylene plastic on the inside. that means they need to be recycled in specialised centres. and that means hardly any cups actually get recycled. every year in the uk, we throw away approximately 2.5 billion so—called disposable cups. so, how can we avoid them becoming landfill? 0ne company making reusable cups is keepcup and the general manager, chris baker, is here. good morning. wonderful to see you. you joined keepcup last year but the company launched this product in 2009, a brother and sister team, why did they decide there was a need for this new kind of cop? the product was launched in 2009 by abigail and

jamie in melbourne. what they wanted essentially was, they were running a cafe chain, and they saw first—hand the amount of disposable cups they we re the amount of disposable cups they were throwing away in melbourne and they wanted something to replicate they wanted something to replicate the form and function that was reusable and that is where the keepcup came in. they realised it was a solution to a global problem, over 2.5 billion cups thrown away in the uk every year, as you said, the impact is massive. the first incarnation they came up with. us through this. this product is 12 ounce cup and this is the original product we came up with and it replicates the form and function of disposable cup. heat resistible band, a hard lid, and we have developed a range of which essentially work for the different ways consumers drink coffee. these are the only barista approved cups,

aesthetically pleasing, and they serve the purpose. they replicate the sizes on the form of the cups under the brew head, they work for the consumer and the person serving the coffee and that is essential to make the speed of service in the coffee shop work and keep everything flowing well. it seems to be something we are being slow to catch up something we are being slow to catch up on in this country, amazing that was started in australia, massive u pta ke of was started in australia, massive uptake of the product there, but here it has taken until the last yearfor here it has taken until the last year for people to get onto the idea that coffee cups most of us purchase wherever we go to get coffee, they are not recyclable. we thought they we re are not recyclable. we thought they were because they look like they are made of paper, but there is plastic in them. what kind of reaction have you had around the world to these? awareness is critical. we have been doing this ten years, once you make consumers aware of the issue, they wa nt to consumers aware of the issue, they

want to make a positive change. paper cups are not recyclable because of the plastic layer. then it is about getting it into daily habits. we have sold another 10 million cups. in that time, those users would have diverted 5 billion cups going to landfill, but in the same time, 5 trillion cups would have still been discarded around the world. your background is in the recycling industry and appoint you have made before this is a stretched industry. the news that recyclable coffee cups were not totally recycla ble ca me coffee cups were not totally recyclable came as a surprise to many in january recyclable came as a surprise to many injanuary and it also came at the same time as talk of the so—called punitive measure of charging people, to what degree has that affected take up? the mention ofa that affected take up? the mention of a potential levy has meant that

sales have doubled in the last month, chains are offering a discount if you offer a reusable cup, but consumers respond more to a fine. at keepcup, we think a small fine. at keepcup, we think a small fine can be a reminder of the unnecessary fine can be a reminder of the u nnecessa i’y waste fine can be a reminder of the unnecessary waste and it can lead to more positive choices. you can save up more positive choices. you can save up to 50p on the coffee? in some chains like pret, you get 50p. habits are hard to break. to remember to take one with you when you leave the house and carry it around in your bag with you and wash it up in the evening, some are plastic, this is glass, it is a mindset you have to change as well? it is, but you would be amazed how quickly it becomes part of the routine. i have a pocket in my bag it lives them. and they do not leak, importantly. they do not leak, it has a sealed inside. great to see you, thank you very much for taking

us you, thank you very much for taking us through the journey. many, many thanks. in a moment, we‘ll take a look through the business pages. but first, here‘s a quick reminder of how to get in touch with us. stay up—to—date with the business news as it happens on the bbc‘s business live page. there is insight and analysis from around the globe and analysis from around the globe and we want to hear from you too. get involved on the bbc‘s business live web page. 0n get involved on the bbc‘s business live web page. on twitter... and you can find us on facebook. business live on tv and online. what you need to know, when you need to know it. richard is back to take a look through the papers. instead of happiness reports we sometimes see, you have a reallyjolly story, the world‘s most miserable economies. bloomberg are kindly measuring the

world‘s most miserable economy is based on mainly inflation and unemployment, the most miserable of venezuela, south africa and egypt, not surprising, venezuela‘s inflation is at 13,000%, south africa‘s unemployment rate is over 30%, rather miserable areas of the world to live in, in essence, i think it is a poor governance index, people in south africa have been poorly led and let down and it results in inflation and unemployment. countries like mexico, that has done really well to improve its ranking on the index, we were talking earlier with regards to the us about the focus globally now on rising synchronised inflation and that again is something that is pointed out here, the way they are measuring misery is by rising costs ina measuring misery is by rising costs in a country. ronald reagan described inflation as a silent

thief and that is what we have seen in some of the countries at the top of the misery index, savings and spending power stolen from the population and that is why they rise to the top of the index u nfortu nately. to the top of the index unfortunately. thailand has claimed the least miserable status but question marks about how they measure. virtually no unemployment, but i suspect there is quite a lot of underemployment, but they look pretty happy. we also spotted this other story on the bbc website about austria planning to ban the ban on smoking and at the beginning of the show, we asked viewers to ask what they think about that, would they avoid places where it is not banned, we had some responses. 0ne says, i would not, buti we had some responses. 0ne says, i would not, but i would burn places we re would not, but i would burn places were loud and obnoxious people are allowed. sophie, personal choice will stop —— i would ban places were

loud and obnoxious people are allowed. would you avoid a place? i think it has been popular here, and even where you would least expect it, like france, it has been pretty popular, and i‘m surprised austria is moving in this direction and i suspect it will not be as popular as they think. the knock-on effect for things like pubs has been tremendous because people cannot smoke in them, more anecdotal leaver actually a causal link... i suspect it is a causal link... i suspect it is a causal link... i suspect it is a causal link and pub loan owners have been that losers asha crow pub owners have been the losers. —— pub owners have been the losers. —— pub owners have been the losers. thank you very much for coming in. that‘s it from business live today. there will be more business news throughout the day on the bbc live webpage and on world business report. we‘ll see you again tomorrow. good morning. after the last few

days where we have had quite a bit of rain spreading east across the uk, snow over higher ground, things improving slightly today. looking brighter, quite breezy, a few showers dotted around, primarily in the north and west. the weather system that brought wet weather yesterday, clearing the way. low pressure is still firmly in charge and that is bringing in a north—westerly wind, still the risk of wintry showers in scotland and northern ireland today, showers dotted around northern england, perhaps the odd shower in southern areas too. for much of southern england, wales, closer look at this afternoon, looking mostly dry with sunshine continuing. temperatures into double figures in southern areas. with lighter winds, feeling fairly pleasant. further north, snow showers over the pennines, northern

ireland, but in particular, the north and west of scotland were the snow showers continued to feed him. still a little bit chilly here. —— feed in. thursday evening, we will see the showers continuing across the north, elsewhere, clear spells. temperatures dropping down close to freezing, chilly and it was last night. not too much of frostbite pockets where the temperature gets below freezing. friday, on the whole, similar to today —— not too much frost but pockets where the temperature gets below freezing. further showers moving into scotland, a little bit of rain and showers moving into the far west of northern ireland, temperatures rising in northern parts, and further south, once again, temperatures in double figures.

getting the mild there because we have high pressure developing in the south—west, the air coming in from the south—west, not as cold, things looking largely settled into the weekend. the high—pressure fairly close by. saturday, sunny spells, lots of dry weather around. sunday, quite cloudy, but it should be dry. look at the temperatures across the uk, 9-11. look at the temperatures across the uk, 9—11. have a good day. goodbye. cruz, hello it‘s thursday, it‘s nine o‘clock, i‘m victoria derbyshire, welcome to the programme. at least 17 people have died after a gunman opened fire at a high school campus in florida. the suspect is a teenager who was believed to have been an expelled pupil. it is one of the us‘a deadliest school attacks in recent years. nikolas cruz nikolas cruz,|j

nikolas cruz nikolas cruz, i i was like that‘s not a drill, we never did a drill like that? how can this happen, this is a state that is focussed on keeping all the children safe. we come to the conclusion this isjust safe. we come to the conclusion this is just absolutely pure evil. bethany shipsey was just 21 years old when she died