Economic commentator Chris Hart said he fears Brexit will be used to cover up South Africa\u2019s poor economic performance, which he says is self-inflicted.<\/p>\n
Speaking at a workshop to unpack the impact of the UK referendum that saw Britons voting to leave the European Union (EU), Hart believed the Brexit vote will be used the wrong way by South Africa.<\/p>\n
\u201cI fear that Brexit will be used as a cover for our own problems,\u201d he said. \u201cSouth Africa is not growing, its heading into recession \u2013 if not already in one – and it\u2019s all self-inflicted.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can blame nobody else, but we probably will,\u201d he said. \u201cBrexit provides a wonderful cover for the fact that we have stuffed up from a policy point of view.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hart resigned from Standard Bank this year after becoming embroiled in a twitter race controversy and is now an independent economic analyst and director of Leapfrog Global.<\/p>\n
Hart said markets were quite extreme in their action following Brexit, because they had a preconceived idea that Brexit had to be a bad thing.<\/p>\n
\u201cSpeculators had their own hubris,\u201d he said. \u201cThey all believed Brexit wouldn\u2019t happen. They also believed it was harmful and so thought you had to take this position.\u201d<\/p>\n
That belief resulted in the global markets losing $3 trillion since the Brexit vote, while the pound fell to a 30-year low. The rand also dropped about 8.5% at one stage, higher than the day President Jacob Zuma fired former finance minister Nhlanhla Nene.<\/p>\n
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