Ratings agencies’ work in SA has been politicised, says President Jacob Zuma. SA is on the brink of being downgraded to a junk credit rating by ratings agencies amid concerns of slow growth and political turmoil. "All countries are rated, but in other countries, this is not politicised. We politicise ratings in SA," Zuma said during a question-and-answer session in Parliament on Wednesday. "We tend to politicise the gradings…. We pick and choose what we think ratings agencies will talk about," he said. Zuma listed a number of countries that had been downgraded in 2016. "There was France in September, the UK in June, Turkey in September to junk status, Russia, Brazil and China…. But here, we make a big issue of it even though the ratings agencies haven’t even arrived yet," he said. Zuma told MPs that the government was "hard at work" to prevent a ratings downgrade.
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