Justice Malala: SA must use reprieve well

SO the ratings agency Standard & Poor’s has followed the example set by Moody’s – it has given South Africa a reprieve. We have not been downgraded to junk status. This is incredibly good news.

It is good news because, as Standard Bank economist Goolam Ballim pointed out two weeks ago, a downgrade to junk would have seen South Africa shed at least 200 000 jobs.

With 8.9 million people already out on the streets, the consequences of such massive losses would be ghastly for a country already under so much stress from poverty, unemployment and inequality.

It is also good news because it rewards the work of some incredible people in our civil service.

At the national Treasury, a department that has been under immense strain over the past two years, there are extremely dedicated men and women who every day meet people like S&P and others and try to convince them that we are not a basket case like Venezuela.

Under the able leadership of Nhlanhla Nene and now Pravin Gordhan, their job is to keep many of their spendthrift colleagues in other ministries from wasting taxpayers’ money and to put it towards good use.

It is not easy. At the Department of Public Works there is still no shame in putting up a minister (in this case Des van Rooyen) in a five-star hotel for five months – while the government asks the public to tighten its belt.

Treasury officials have been hard at work since the Nenegate scandal of December to convince the world our economy will grow and that nothing similar to that event will take place again.

It was a moment of madness that should not be repeated.

Yet they have not had much help from the president of the country, who has repeatedly asserted that he made no mistake by appointing the hapless Van Rooyen to the most important job in our cabinet.

The messages coming from the presidency have essentially been that the international investor community and the ratings agencies can go jump in the lake. What needs to happen now? How do we ensure we do not get crazy days like Friday, when the whole country holds its breath, praying for a reprieve?

To my mind there are two things that urgently need to happen. Our challenges are stark – to grow this economy from the anaemic 0.8% that we are projected to deliver this year, and eradicate unemployment, poverty and inequality.

The first thing to do is to remove the toxicity of our politics from the urgent tasks we need to achieve.

The reason why the national Treasury has been harassed and targeted by political leaders and “law enforcement” agencies like the Hawks is because the ANC is in a battle for its heart and soul.

Key factions have been doing their damnedest to take over the Treasury, install their acolytes in the place and allow entities like SA Airways, the Public Investment Corporation, the Industrial Development Corporation and others to be used for the gains of elites.

This needs to stop. It needs the president of the republic to put an end to all these nefarious activities.

He needs to unambiguously and clearly say to his comrades in the ANC and in society that he backs the Treasury and its minister.

He needs to step back from perceptions that he is behind attacks on Gordhan and the Treasury. If he fails to back his own horse – he did after all appoint Gordhan, despite his worrisome declarations that Van Rooyen was the best man for the job – then we will all be in trouble.

The second and most important thing we need to do as a country is to start doing things, to start implementing the grand plans that we have, instead of talking about how great they are.

The reason our economy is growing at such a pathetic rate is because are not implementing the National Development Plan with any sign of vigour or passion. It is as if the NDP was written to be praised, not to be implemented.

We can wave the NDP documents in front of ratings agencies and others for years.

The key, though, is that they want – and our people want – to see the dams being built, the investments being made.

When Fitch and S&P say we need to grow the economy, they mean that we must implement plans and not just talk about them.

In six months, the ratings agencies will be looking at us again with a pretty fine-tooth comb.

We have a stark choice – we either continue in this leaderless, fractious fashion or we resolve to turn things around and get back to winning ways.

If our politics remain toxic, and we don’t implement our plans, then we will be punished, and punished harshly. Lets start building today.