In March, when Moody’s finally junked SA’s credit ratings — three years after S&P Global Ratings did the same — it was with the sigh of a long-wronged wife who has finally given up believing that her cheating husband will mend his ways.Implicit in the Moody’s ratings action was that it no longer believed enough structural and budget reform would occur to raise SA’s growth rate and stabilise its galloping debt trajectory. Having given President Cyril Ramaphosa’s government two years to effect policy reforms, Moody’s finally lost faith in its ability to turn things around.The lack of credibility of SA’s reform efforts explains its junk rating with all the major ratings agencies. In a nutshell, it reflects their deep- seated concern about SA’s longer-term debt sustainability, given the inability of the economy to grow at the levels required to generate meaningful employment and tax revenue.Last week’s record-high unemployment figures were a stark reminder of this. Ramaphosa put a posit...
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