Social media and the Sunday papers were on fire this past weekend, dissecting, analysing and commenting on the extraordinary breadth of the protests against President Jacob Zuma on Friday and confirmation, as the protesters were beginning to go home, that another of the world’s top three debt ratings agencies, Fitch Ratings, had joined S&P Global in downgrading our sovereign debt to below investment grade, or to junk status. It isn’t, of course, that “junk” is not worth investing in. In fact it can be quite lucrative. But for the country issuing the debt it’s a nightmare. Investors won’t buy unless you offer them a much higher yield (their margin, not yours) than you used to. Obviously, the most breathtaking of all the reactions to the week’s double downgrade was on the front page of the Sunday Times, where a WhatsApp group including water & sanitation minister Nomvula Mokonyane, SAA chair Dudu Myeni and Black Business Council chair Danisa Baloyi cheered the downgrades as a sort of ...
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