CLAIRE BISSEKER: No blank cheques for SA from the East or West
Rejecting an IMF austerity package would be worse than accepting one because nothing will be more painful in the long run than the consequences of failing to change our fiscal course now
13 August 2019 - 05:08
Political analyst RW Johnson introduced SA to the idea that if there was one thing that would be worse than having to go to the IMF for a bailout, it would be the ANC government refusing to do so.
Johnson argued, and many have agreed, that the ANC would never accept the loss of economic sovereignty implicit in taking an IMF bailout. Not only would it signal the failure of the party as a government — a crime for which no ANC president would easily be forgiven, Johnson argued — but IMF assistance would be rejected because it usually comes with painful conditions attached.
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