ALLAN GREENBLO: ‘Prescribed assets’ or leaving Gordhan in the lurch? What’s worse?
When the private sector is asked by Pravin Gordhan to jump, its instantaneous response must be to ask how high. In the ugly circumstances of political extortion, most glaringly apparent at Eskom, the potency of the public enterprises minister cannot be compromised. There are two nonnegotiables: that rotten state-owned entities (SOEs), unable to repay loans, are saved from bankruptcy; and that Gordhan emerges as invulnerable to attack by having pulled this off. The alternatives, of the SOEs ceasing operations and Gordhan being dethroned, threaten an Armageddon for the economy. Much as it sticks in the craw, the ogre of prescribed assets might need to be explored. Banks and asset managers, from whom Gordhan pleads for assistance, sit on mountains of money that isn’t their own. They cannot through a sense of patriotism increase exposures to levels where they feel uncomfortable. Finance minister Nhlanhla Nene must also be uncomfortable, sitting atop a national treasury called to honour ...
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