The ANC and the DA on Wednesday sparred in Parliament over the recession and who is to blame for it, with the official opposition pointing fingers at the governing party. SA slid into a recession after GDP contracted 0.7% in the second quarter. This was after a first quarter 2.2% decline was revised upwards to 2.6%. Economic development minister Ebrahim Patel said the DA was laying the ground for its election campaign and was using the recession to score political points. "It does not help to darken the cyclical economic story to make it much worse simply for short-term political gain," Patel said. He said the "policy-divided" DA was using the recession to unite itself before the elections. In doing so the party ran the danger of trading in "hysterical rhetoric", he said. Patel stressed that while the economy was in a fragile state not all sectors were in freefall. "In SA the recession should be of relatively short duration compared to many other countries. It follows the second-lon...
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