President Jacob Zuma complained last week that we politicise ratings in SA. "In other countries, this is not politicised," he added. The besieged 74-year-old pointed to recent downgrades in France and the UK as well as other emerging markets of Russia, Brazil and China. "But here, we make a big issue of it," he said. It’s not even Zuma’s cavalier economic illiteracy that’s the problem: it’s his casual ability to distort fact, while blithely choosing to discount the day-to-day impact of his kamikaze-presidency on people he swore an oath to protect. His response on the ratings evoked that of the iconic Alfred E Neuman, the grinning country bumpkin mascot for Mad magazine whose motto for every scenario was: "What, me worry?" The problem for SA’s own Alfred E Neuman is that the ratings agencies have placed SA on a precipice, entirely because the country’s economy has been held hostage to Zuma’s political whims. Last week, Fitch granted the country a stay of execution from a downgrade bu...
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