Pretoria - Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa has appealed for an end to “wild and sensational statements” that may destabilise the economy in comments seemingly directed at asset manager Futuregrowth after it announced the suspension of plans to lend to South African parastatals .
Responding to a question from DA leader Mmusi Maimane on the “war” between the Treasury and the Presidency, Ramaphosa said the events of the past few weeks had caused concern among South Africans.
This comes after Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan faced a demand from the Hawks to present himself for questioning amid a stand-off with a number of parastatals over governance issues and the announcement by Futuregrowth it would ditch plans to lend more than R1.8 billion to SOEs, including Eskom. The asset manager cited concerns over how the SOEs were being run as the reason for its decision and was followed yesterday by Denmark’s Jyske Bank AS, which also pulled the plug on loans to Eskom .
Eskom’s chief financial officer, Anoj Singh, said it had secured 57 percent of its borrowing requirement of R69bn for the financial year 2016/17 and that it would not be affected by Futuregrowth’s decision.
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But the move prompted a plea from the ANC that the asset manager should “engage with the relevant ministries and parastatals to discuss the concerns they have and, together, find a solution in the interest of the economy and country”.
It said the “generalisation” that there were governance challenges besetting the parastatals snubbed by Futuregrowth - Eskom, Transnet, Sanral, the Land Bank, Industrial Development Corporation and Development Bank of SA - were “erroneous and unfortunate”.
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Ramaphosa said during question time that both government and non-government entities should “take care that whatever they do should not lead to destabilising our economy”.
“We also called on all and sundry from making wild and sensational statements about whatever they may perceive is happening, because it is the statements that also exacerbate the situation. We’d like to believe the processes now under way to deal with this matter will put it to bed and we will be able to proceed in a way where there is decorum, in a way where one entity of government is not at war with another entity of government,” Ramaphosa said.
* With additional reporting by Chantall Presence
PRETORIA NEWS