PETER BRUCE: S&P beats Zuma at his own zero sum game
Latest downgrade shows Zuma has run out of time
After Friday’s downgrade of SA’s sovereign debt by the ratings agency S&P, and the decision by another, Moody’s, to place our ratings on review for 90 days (this is to say, after the ANC’s December leadership contest and after the budget) it is clear that none of the candidates for leadership of the party and, ultimately, the country, has any idea about how to prevent a scenario in which all three of the world’s top agencies have us as junk. (The third, Fitch, also already has our local and foreign currency debt below investment grade, or “junk”.) S&P’s big move on Friday was to downgrade SA’s rand-denominated debt to junk, It had already done that to foreign debt earlier this year. So both S&P and Fitch have us in the dwang. It seems highly unlikely that anything can happen in the next 90 days to stop Moody’s following suit.
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