ARTICLE: THE POST-MOODY’S NEED FOR NATIONAL UNITY IN AVOIDING A RATINGS DOWNGRADE
2016-05-10
There is an eerie unreality about the debate that has followed Moody’s decision to retain South Africa’s rating at two notches above junk grade status (with a negative outlook).
Moody’s explained its decision on the basis of three principal considerations:
- South Africa’s economic growth is expected to recover after reaching its trough in 2016 – based on the prospect of closer collaboration between government, business, labour and civil society in restoring confidence in the economy and addressing the constraints to economic growth;
- following the 2016 budget, it is expected that general government debt to GDP will be stabilised under the direction of the Treasury – which has a reassuring fiscal track record; and
- Moody’s was impressed by South Africa’s institutional strength compared to its peers – no doubt a reference to the roles played by the Constitutional Court, the Public Protector and civil society in the recent “spy tapes” and Nkandla judgments, and in the Nene affair.
World Press Freedom Day (3 May) gives us the opportunity to assess the freedom of our press in South Africa.
Workers’ Day provides us with an opportunity to assess the nation’s labour relations and the degree to which our economy is succeeding in its responsibility to provide jobs for all our people – and particularly for our youth. We are confronted with the reality that, according to a recently released Statistics SA report, The Social Profile of the Youth, 2009-2014, approximately three-quarters (3.4 million) of the more than five million unemployed South Africans in 2014 were youth (aged 15–34 years). This alarming statistic requires an honest introspection into South Africa’s current modus operandi in the labour arena and calls on us to confront the failures that are crippling our ability to create an inclusive and prosperous South Africa – particularly for our young people. There are four obstacles to solving the youth unemployment crisis.
The FW de Klerk Foundation is pleased to announce the appointment of Ms Phephelaphi Dube to succeed Adv Johan Kruger as the Director of the Centre for Constitutional Rights (CFCR), with effect from 1 May 2016.
Earlier this week the Minister of the Sport and Recreation, Fikile Mbalula, announced the imposition of sanctions against four of South Africa’s main sporting codes (Athletics South Africa, Cricket South Africa, Netball South Africa and South African Rugby) for not meeting the racial targets that they themselves had earlier accepted. He said that he had resolved “to revoke their privilege … to host and bid for major international tournaments” in South Africa.
The FW de Klerk Foundation strongly supports The Foundations Initiative because we believe that we South Africans really need to talk to one another about the challenges that confront our society. We would like to recapture the spirit of inclusivity, of listening, debating and compromising that characterised our great national constitutional dialogue during the early 90s. Who better to begin this process than the Foundations established by our founding fathers and mothers?
There are several aspects to the current “state capture” debate.
Vladimir Lenin said that “when the time comes for us to hang the capitalists they will compete with one another to sell us the rope”. In the same manner, Afrikaners are playing a leading role in assisting the ANC to eclipse Afrikaans as a language of tuition at university level.