The President must be held accountable for his actions

4 April 2017

In the light of the recent cabinet reshuffle and the lack in economic leadership from the President’s office, South Africa has received a rating of junk status by Standard and Poor (S & P).  Over 19 years, S&P has downgraded only 23 countries to junk status, of those only six recovered with the shortest recovery time being 5 years.  “To recover from a downgrade take considerable effort from both political and economic sectors of society. The President now needs to explain what he is going to do to get South Africa out of the junk status” Johannes Möller President of Agri SA remarked. 

S&P explained that the downgrade is a consequence of the Cabinet reshuffle shortly after midnight on Friday.  “This is a direct consequence of political decisions that were made, and will have an impact on currency volatility, devaluation of the rand, investor and sovereign lending terms, and would adversely affect agricultural production in South Africa, inwards investment and potentially food security”, Omri van Zyl, Executive Director of Agri SA said.  

“The President now needs to explain to South Africans what the plan is to get us out of this mess.  If you are responsible for something that affects 55 million South Africans than you should, as the leader of the state explain what you will do to rectify the situation. If the President cannot explain his actions, he must step down”, Möller added.

“Agri SA is concerned with the current turn of events and the effect this has on political and economic certainty and the stability of our country.  Political and economic leadership is the only way to take us forward”, Möller said in closing.

Issued by Thea Liebenberg, Media liaison officer, Agri SA, 4 April 2017