PETER BRUCE: Why Thabo Mbeki was wrong and Tony Trahar was right back in 2004
'Trahar said of political risk in South Africa: "I won't say it has completely disappeared." Thabo Mbeki, president at the time, quickly let fly at Trahar'
Remember the row in September 2004 when the then CEO of Anglo American, Tony Trahar, gave what he thought was a charitable answer to a question about political risk in South Africa during a Financial Times interview? Trahar said he thought political risk in South Africa had declined but, he said, "I won't say it has completely disappeared."Thabo Mbeki, president at the time, quickly let fly at Trahar. "The ANC and the government," he growled in a newsletter, "would like to know to which political risk Trahar is referring." History improves over time, though. Now, 13 years later, we know Trahar was a little off the mark. Political risk wasn't waning. It was there, simmering away. And less than a year after asking Trahar what he was talking about, Mbeki had fired Jacob Zuma as deputy president. Mbeki had been utterly wrong. Trahar's "political risk", though dim at the time, is abundantly clear now. It's a big ball of political fire hanging over us all. The risk is Zuma; the all-powerf...
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