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Economists and business executives agree that President Jacob Zuma is devastating the economy, while news emerge that Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane punted a book by an anti-Reserve Bank activist while probing the Bankorp bailout.
The leader who caused a slump: Zuma blamed for SA mess
The last time South Africa fell into recession, in 2009, it was because of the global financial crisis. This time around, economists and business executives agree, the cause is a person: the president.
Jacob Zuma’s erratic political moves are breeding policy uncertainty and reluctance to invest, helping explain why the economy of the continent’s most industrialised nation contracted for a second straight quarter in the three months through March. Finance, real estate and business services shrank for the first time since the second quarter of 2009.
Business confidence has yet to recover after falling to a more than three-decade low in September and the rand has been the world’s most volatile currency in the past year. All the while, Zuma was waging a battle with then finance minister Pravin Gordhan over how to manage the economy - until he fired him.
Companies across industries say the political and economic instability is cutting sales, hurting profit forecasts and even inducing consumers to gamble less.
REVEALED: Public Protector punted ‘must read book’ by anti-Reserve Bank activist
Public Protector Advocate Busisiwe Mkhwebane punted a "must read book" by a South African anti-Reserve Bank activist on social media while she was investigating the Bankorp bailout, reports Fin24's Matthew le Cordeur.
A few months before officially releasing the report, Mkhwebane punted Stephen Goodson’s 2014 book A history of central banking and the enslavement of mankind on Twitter and Facebook, saying in one post that it was “a must read book”.
The posts were both made on 25 April 2017, two days after she interviewed Goodson as part of the investigation. This is confirmed in the full report (link below), which states that she interviewed the author on 23 April 2017.
Absa to approach high court to have Public Protector’s report set aside
Absa and its main shareholder Barclays Africa have decided to approach the high court in order to have the Public Protector’s report into Bankorp reviewed and set aside, it said on Wednesday.
The South African Reserve Bank announced it would also seek to have the report reviewed on Tuesday.
Absa said it is approaching the court “due to numerous misrepresentations and factual inaccuracies which form the basis of the Public Protector's findings, and what we submit are the irrational and unreasonable legal conclusions in the report. The misconceptions and inaccuracies in the report are profound and damaging to Absa’s reputation.
“We have accordingly instructed our lawyers to immediately prepare an application to the High Court to have the report and its remedial actions set aside.
“We deny that Absa received R1.125bn by way of unlawful assistance and we firmly maintain our position that all of Absa’s obligations to the South African Reserve Bank were met in full by October 1995,” said Absa.
Only nine new municipalities out of 263 achieved clean audits - AG report
There was little improvement in the local government audit outcomes report for the year 2015/16, with fewer municipalities achieving clean audit opinions.
This auditor general local government report was released on Wednesday. The report shows the audit outcomes of 263 municipalities and 51 municipal entities. Auditor General Kimi Makwetu spoke on the findings at a press briefing in Pretoria.
The report showed that 14 municipalities lost their clean audit opinions and only nine joined the category of clean audits. A total of 49 municipalities achieved clean audits.
The provinces with the highest proportion of municipalities with clean audit opinions were the Western Cape (80%), KwaZulu-Natal (18%) and the Eastern Cape (16%).
The Western Cape increased its clean audit opinions from 73% in the previous year to 80%.
Gauteng was the only province to receive unqualified audit opinions on its financial statements. The Midvaal municipality was the only one to keep its clean audit status.
The Eastern Cape, Limpopo and Mpumalanga showed improvements while North West, Northern Cape and Free State delivered the poorest audit results.
Read the full story by Fin24's Lameez Omarjee.
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