South Africa needs to be an extremely favourable investment destination if it wants to rescue the ailing economy and prevent it from reaching junk status, according to Chris Hart.<\/p>\n
A downgrade is likely on the cards for South Africa, said Hart, who was embroiled in a Twitter row and subsequently resigned from Standard Bank following harsh criticism.<\/p>\n
“I think the downgrade is baked in the cake. There is nothing I can see that is on the table that is going to prevent that from happening and that is a shame.”<\/p>\n
He said escalating taxes and tightening regulations are making it more costly to do business in the country.<\/p>\n
“We need to find ways on how to make South Africa a more attractive destination for investors. Without economic growth, we are going to go backwards.”<\/p>\n
The economy has been under strain leading to a growth slowdown that has contributed to rising government debt, resulting in credit rating agencies slashing the country’s debt to one notch above junk status.<\/p>\n
The Treasury, South African Reserve Bank, International Monetary Fund and World Bank all forecast growth of less that 1% for this year.<\/p>\n
Hart told Fin24 the offending tweet was meant to observe that the country is facing a pressure-cooker situation.<\/p>\n
“We are not creating jobs and that is creating pressure such as xenophobic violence and an increased reliance on the state.”<\/p>\n
He said South Africa is capital deficient and needs policies that help to build capital.<\/p>\n
“We need to move to substantial economic growth, which means we need to be an extremely favourable investment destination.”<\/p>\n
Commenting on South Africa’s future and the impact of racism, Hart said racism, like xenophobia, tribalism and homophobia, is an important issue that we need to stand against.<\/p>\n
“I think it is all part of the same kind of hatred which is something that we need to be fighting against.”<\/p>\n
With the elections looming, Hart warned against using racism as a tactic to direct attention away from service delivery, corruption and the state of the economy.<\/p>\n
“My big concern at the moment is that we have a government that has under-delivered… and they are using racism as a deflection from actually focusing on what I call bread and butter issues,” he said.<\/p>\n
“Of course we have to deal with racism and we’ve got to be very vigilant against the prevalence of racism – and that I believe is across race groups – but we have to be mindful that we can’t eat racism, racism doesn’t create jobs.”<\/p>\n
Fin24<\/a><\/p>\n Standard Bank to discipline economist for \u2018racist\u2019 tweets<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Black entrepreneur defends \u2018racist\u2019 economist<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n ANC defends white South Africans in racism row<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\nMore on Chris Hart<\/h3>\n