Publications
Partners
Johannesburg - The decision by Moody's to downgrade South Africa's debt rating is a "significant rejection" of Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene's medium term budget policy statement (MTBPS), the DA said on Friday.
"The downgrade means that Moody’s and other foreign investors are less confident in the South African government’s ability to pay back its debt," Democratic Alliance spokesman Dion George said in a statement.
"Government will have to borrow money at higher interest rates, placing more pressure on the state’s coffers."
George said Moody’s would have looked closely at what Nene said on October 22 in his MTBPS.
VIEW: Mini Budget Special
"It is an indictment of the finance minister that Moody’s downgraded our debt status only 16 days after his speech. Clearly, he did not inspire confidence," he said.
"To turn things around, Nene needed to propose bold new measures to cut corruption and waste, like calling for a ban on public servants doing business with the state."
South Africa lost R30bn to waste and corruption every year and yet nothing was being done to stop this, George said.
On Thursday, in a statement released on Moody's website, the ratings agency said it had downgraded the South African government's debt rating to Baa2 from Baa1.
"The government's short-term debt rating is affirmed at a provisional Prime-2 ((P)P-2)," Moody's said.
"The outlook on the rating was changed to stable from negative."
There were two primary reasons for the rating downgrade.
READ: Moody's downgrades SA credit rating
The first was poor medium-term growth prospects due to structural weaknesses.
This included ongoing energy shortages, rising interest rates, investor climate deterioration, and a less supportive capital market environment for countries like South Africa, which were highly dependent on external capital.
The second reason was the prospect of further rises in the government debt-to-GDP ratio implied by the low-growth environment.
"Even strict compliance with the government spending ceiling and somewhat smaller fiscal deficits are unlikely to arrest in the near-term," Moody's said.
"The assignment of a stable outlook reflected policymakers' commitment to reining in government debt growth over the medium-term and the broad political support for a macroeconomic strategy."
This included the National Development Plan (NDP) and tighter monetary policy and fiscal restraint, which should help stabilise the debt burden over the medium-term, Moody's said.
George said government had sunk billions of rands into "failing state-owned entities (SOEs), which should have been partially or wholly privatised years ago.
READ: Eskom, SAA to stay drain on tax coffers
"The latest MTBPS included another R270bn for Eskom. There needs to be a radical rethinking of government’s approach to state-owned entities," he said.
"Unfortunately there was nothing new in Nene’s MTBPS and no real commitment to tackle the deficit, the waste in government, or our failing SOEs."
Instead, Nene announced R27bn in new taxes, which only out-sourced the problem to already burdened South African families.
