{"id":117034,"date":"2016-03-19T14:18:40","date_gmt":"2016-03-19T12:18:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=117034"},"modified":"2016-03-19T14:17:51","modified_gmt":"2016-03-19T12:17:51","slug":"10-things-south-africa-needs-to-do-to-avoid-junk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/trending\/117034\/10-things-south-africa-needs-to-do-to-avoid-junk\/","title":{"rendered":"10 things South Africa needs to do to avoid junk"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Trade union Solidarity has released a 10-point &#8220;wish list&#8221;\u00a0which it says will work to save the South African economy from junk status.<\/p>\n<p>A team from global rating agency Moody&#8217;s is set to land in South Africa this week to assess the state of the country, and decide whether it should be downgraded.<\/p>\n<p>The group put South Africa&#8217;s credit rating score on review earlier this month. Should the country&#8217;s rate be cut, the Moody&#8217;s score will be in line with two other ratings agencies &#8211; Fitch and Standard &amp; Poor&#8217;s &#8211; in placing the country on the edge of junk status.<\/p>\n<p>Solidarity\u00a0appealed to\u00a0Moody\u2019s to not lower South Africa\u2019s rating but rather to pressure government to grow the country\u2019s economy, &#8220;taking it away from the abyss to prosperity&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Definite steps that can be taken to restore investor confidence in South Africa do exist. However, government will have to be pressured to act decisively to make a direction change away from the road heading for the abyss the economy finds itself on at the moment,&#8221;\u00a0it\u00a0said.<\/p>\n<p>The group provided a 10-point &#8216;wish list&#8217; on how the country could drag itself out of the abyss- and first and foremost: get rid of president Jacob Zuma.<\/p>\n<p><strong>1.\u00a0<\/strong>Elect a\u00a0president capable of instilling and cultivating foreign confidence.<u><\/u><u><\/u><\/p>\n<p><u><\/u><strong>2.\u00a0<\/strong>Radical political statements and policies that diminish trust, such as instituting radical redistribution of land, should be stopped.<u><\/u><u><\/u><\/p>\n<p><u><\/u><strong>3.<\/strong>\u00a0The government&#8217;s political rivalry with the EFF is driving South Africa into the abyss and it must cease.<u><\/u><u><\/u><\/p>\n<p><u><\/u><strong>4.\u00a0<\/strong>Government interference in businesses such as the implementation of black economic empowerment is harming the economy and should rather be left to the market.<u><\/u><u><\/u><\/p>\n<p><u><\/u><strong>5.\u00a0<\/strong>The violation of property rights through the implementation of expropriation legislation is damaging investor confidence and should be abandoned.<u><\/u><u><\/u><\/p>\n<p><u><\/u><strong>6.<\/strong>\u00a0Government\u2019s racial policies such as affirmative action is transforming the constitutional provision for equality into an &#8220;absolutisation of representativeness&#8221;, and this should be normalised.<u><\/u><u><\/u><\/p>\n<p><u><\/u><strong>7.\u00a0<\/strong>A competent Minister in charge of local authorities should be appointed in order to ensure good governance and accountability.<u><\/u><u><\/u><\/p>\n<p><u><\/u><strong>8.\u00a0<\/strong>Competence instead of race and political affiliations should once again be the most important motivation in the public sector.<u><\/u><u><\/u><\/p>\n<p><u><\/u><strong>9.<\/strong>\u00a0The current rampant corruption is wasting money and destroying confidence and should be nipped in the bud immediately.<u><\/u><u><\/u><\/p>\n<p><u><\/u><strong>10.<\/strong>\u00a0The government must ensure that hardworking tax payers receive value for their money by providing quality services.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"my-4\">More on\u00a0South Africa<\/h3>\n<p><strong><a title=\"Rand tanks amid Gordhan job fears\" href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/117010\/rand-tanks-amid-gordhan-job-fears\/\">Rand tanks amid Gordhan job fears<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><a title=\"How much money SAA has lost over the past 10 years\" href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/116826\/how-much-money-saa-has-lost-over-the-past-10-years\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">How much money SAA has lost over the past 10 years<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><a title=\"Gauteng premier house costs taxpayers R1.5 million annually \u2013 and he doesn\u2019t even live there\" href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/116678\/gauteng-premiers-house-costs-tax-payers-r1-5-million-annually-and-he-doesnt-even-live-there\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">Gauteng premier house costs taxpayers R1.5 million annually \u2013 and he doesn\u2019t even live there<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Trade union Solidarity has released a 10-point plan which it says will work to save the South African economy from junk status.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":74874,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[26,1632],"class_list":["post-117034","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trending","tag-headline","tag-solidarity"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117034","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117034"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117034\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":117042,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117034\/revisions\/117042"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74874"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}