Clock is ticking as ratings agencies examine SA

Minister in the Presidency Jeff Radebe. File picture: Jennifer Bruce, Independent Media

Minister in the Presidency Jeff Radebe. File picture: Jennifer Bruce, Independent Media

Published May 27, 2016

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Pretoria - The Cabinet has not discussed reports of the arrest of Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan by the Hawks, but President Jacob Zuma and his executive warned both Gordhan and the unit to stop the public mudslinging.

Minister in the Presidency Jeff Radebe told the media at a post-Cabinet briefing in Cape Town yesterday there had been no discussion on reports of Gordhan’s arrest.

Read: SA braces for verdict from ratings agencies

“We have not discussed the arrest of anybody in Cabinet. But what was discussed was the public statements by all sides where the Cabinet and the president indicated that these matters must not be ventilated in public. There are appropriate forums to deal with them,” said Radebe.

This comes after the Hawks had confirmed they would not arrest the finance minister .

This battle has sucked in the ANC’s alliance partner, the SACP, which has accused Hawks head Lieutenant-General Berning Ntlemeza of harassing Gordhan.

Radebe also said the government was confident that South Africa would stave off the downgrade by Fitch and Standard & Poor’s when they released their credit rating for the country next week Friday.

Radebe said a lot of work had been done to get the economy out of the woods.

Read: 'SA's commitment to spend cap is positive'

Rating agencies Fitch and S&P were in the country a few days ago where they met Cabinet ministers, business and other stakeholders.

Radebe said they did not believe the rating agencies would give South Africa a downgrade next week.

“Since the beginning of the year the president tasked the minister of finance and Jabu Mabuza (president of Business Unity South Africa) that Team South Africa must sing from the same page, so that we don’t get a downgrade,” he said.

Since then Gordhan and Mabuza have put a lot of effort into reviving the economy.

Radebe said there was no need to press panic buttons on the release of the credit rating on Friday next week.

“All of us need to be optimistic about the future of South Africa.”

In its review a few weeks ago, Moody’s maintained South Africa’s negative outlook.

Radebe said he took comfort from this fact and did not believe Fitch and S&P would go a notch down and downgrade the country.

A total of 90 CEOs of top companies in the country have been at the heart of efforts to find solutions to the economy and invest locally.

Radebe said the investment of R6.1 billion by Toyota at its Durban plant early this week was a vote of confidence in the economy.

Toyota will manufacture the latest models of Hilux and Fortuner.

This investment by Toyota follows that of R6bn by BMW at its Rosslyn plant in Pretoria in November last year. BMW is producing the new generation of X3 models at this plant.

Radebe said these large investments demonstrated that major foreign companies were confident about South Africa’s economy.

PRETORIA NEWS

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