ON THE MOENY
STUART THEOBALD: If SA treats its banks like mines, we risk losing one of our few remaining strengths
The unique issue with the financial system is that ownership is directly involved in the competitiveness of an institution
Many of our institutions have been damaged severely, from the National Prosecuting Authority to the revenue service. While we wait for the Zuma era to come to its conclusion so that we can get to the task of rebuilding them, we must stand firm in defending those that remain. One of the most important is our financial system, a system that is a national asset and a powerful tool to shape the sort of society we want SA to become. That system is, however, facing threats from several quarters. We forget that the ANC inherited a bankrupt state with a malformed aberration of a financial system that served an isolated apartheid state. We forget the financial rand, a made-up currency to try to protect the value of the commercial rand; the prescribed assets regime, which at its peak compelled investment firms to put 75% of their assets into government bonds to finance the state; and the desperate exchange control regime that tried to stem capital flight. Today, we have a financial system to ...
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