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SA does not deserve a downgrade - Zweli Mkhize

Pretoria – South Africa does not deserve a ratings downgrade by Standard & Poor’s (S&P), ANC treasurer general Zweli Mkhize said on Friday.

S&P is expected to announce its decision after the close of markets on Friday.

Mkhize told journalists that the ANC did not know what S&P would say, but he did not believe that South Africa had declined so much over the last couple of months to deserve a credit ratings downgrade, Netwerk24 reported.

South Africa is currently just one notch above sub-investment grade, known as junk status, and is on negative outlook, according to S&P.

Mkhize said South Africa had made a number of improvements over the last two months and had done enough to avoid a downgrade.

"When we met with them, we made our point that we believe the country is standing at the threshold of recovery and we don’t believe that a downgrade will be a fair acknowledgement of the effort we have made to stabilise the economy.” 

ANC economic transformation sub-committee head Enoch Godongwana said S&P focused more on the country’s politics.

Mkhize said ratings agencies needed to have the right perspective about the South African economy and not be swayed by political noise.

"The rhetoric about pleasing the ratings agencies is not the point. The real point is they need to know the true story‚ and we have to make sure that our narrative is based on the realities of what we are trying to solve‚" he said, according to The Times.

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