Johannesburg – The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) called on the African National Congress to recall President Jacob Zuma as the leader of the ruling party after S&P Global cut South Africa’s credit rating to junk status on Monday, citing Zuma’s late-night Cabinet reshuffle.
Outa chairperson Wayne Duvenage said that the organisation urged the ANC’s leadership to recall Zuma and to take the every possible step to ensure he was stripped on his position as the president of South Africa.
“We cannot allow this situation to continue and the ruling party will have to look toward themselves and their inability to take this issue seriously,” Duvenage said.
“We believe that if the authorities act swiftly, South Africa may be able to have the rest of the ratings agencies to stay their decision for a downgrade, and eventually get S&P to reverse their decision.”
On Monday, the international ratings agency said it was their opinion that “the executive changes initiated by President Zuma have put at risk fiscal and growth outcomes”.
S&P lowered the country’s long-term foreign currency sovereign credit rating to ‘BB+’ from ‘BBB-‘ and the long-term local currency rating to ‘BBB-‘ from ‘BBB’.
The outlook on all the long-term ratings is negative, the agency said, adding that it had assessed that contingent liabilities to the state were rising.
“The negative outlook reflects our view that political risks will remain elevated this year, and that policy shifts are likely, which could undermine fiscal and economic growth outcomes more than we currently project,” S&P Global said in a statement.