What will happen when President Jacob Zuma goes...
Were he to go, the benefits could extend beyond the revival of fiscal rectitude and move towards that coveted radical economic transformation
There will be good economic reasons for rejoicing should Zuma go. The rand would strengthen — it would move back in line with its emerging currency market peers; today that would have meant a rate of approximately R12.60 to the dollar. Lower inflation will follow a stronger rand and bring lower short-term interest rates in its wake. Cheaper-than-otherwise goods and services and credit would encourage households to spend more — as would the higher house prices and equity in homes that accompany lower mortgage rates and a more hopeful outlook for SA. And the firms that supplied them would be much more inclined to add, rather than contract, capacity and hire more rather than fewer employees, as they have been doing. The South African business cycle would turn up rather than down. The first Zuma attempt to control the Treasury in December 2015 took the yield on South African 10-year bonds from 8.5% per annum in early December that year to about 9.6% by early January 2016. This move also...
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