Johannesburg - The ANC will ignore ratings company advice
and will call for an increase in mining taxes, Business Day reported the
party's economic policy head as saying.
In the report on Thursday, Enoch Godongwana said the party
must ensure that the lives of poor black South Africans improve, or risk giving
an opportunity for populist leaders to stir up social unrest and erode the
ANC's dominance.
"Unless we do some radical transformation, we'll create
fertile ground for an uncontrollable revolution," Godongwana said.
Moody's Investor Service and Standard & Poor's have
downgraded South Africa's debt, citing slower economic growth, after the worst
mining strikes since the end of apartheid and political pressure to raise
spending.
"We're kind of in a Catch-22 situation because there
are people who listen to Moody's, and when we go out there and raise money it
becomes expensive," Godongwana said.
"We may take a hit. We've got to make a choice: do we
please Standard and Poor's and Moody's, or do we deal with the kind of
constituencies we are facing? We're walking that tightrope."
While Godongwana ruled out the ANC conference agreeing to
any form of mine nationalisation, he said increased taxes on mining were
possible.
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