State of the nation: time to abandon the dream of state-led transformation
After President Jacob Zuma gives us his view of the state of the nation the ratings agencies and investors will decide for themselves, writes Marius Oosthuizen
President Jacob Zuma will address us this week in his state of the nation speech in Parliament. In all likelihood his speech will be interrupted by a noisy and semirational red-beret brigade accusing the president of thievery, illegitimacy, of undermining the constitution and breaching his oath of office. This will all be the sideshow to the real action, the unseen, watchful eyes of the ratings agencies and international investor community, who will decide for themselves about the state of our nation. Just over two decades into our democratic era, SA is facing waves of internal change and headwinds of global uncertainty. The tough latter years of the Mbeki era, a time of 2%-3% economic growth and polite mudslinging between government and the private sector, is now looking more and more like the good old days. Under the current president, the economy has slumped to under 1% growth. While the private sector has put on a brave face, the fracturing of formal business formations into ide...
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