{"id":339723,"date":"2019-09-10T07:16:46","date_gmt":"2019-09-10T05:16:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=339723"},"modified":"2019-09-10T07:16:46","modified_gmt":"2019-09-10T05:16:46","slug":"south-africa-on-a-slippery-slope-says-new-mtn-chairman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/mobile\/339723\/south-africa-on-a-slippery-slope-says-new-mtn-chairman\/","title":{"rendered":"South Africa on a slippery slope says new MTN chairman"},"content":{"rendered":"
South Africa is in a precarious state and urgent action is needed to stabilize its finances, according to former Deputy Finance Minister Mcebisi Jonas.<\/div>\n
<\/article>\n
\u201cOur political and economic problems are chronic,\u201d Jonas told the Cape Town Press Club on Monday. \u201cOur problem is that as we decline, we under-deliver. As we under-deliver, we generate more social and political discontent.\u201dSouth Africa is struggling to recover from the nine years of policy missteps and rampant corruption that characterized former President Jacob Zuma\u2019s rule.While Cyril Ramaphosa, who succeeded Zuma in February last year, has sought to tackle graft and revive the economy, the country is contending with a 29% unemployment rate, a debt-stricken state power utility that\u2019s draining state coffers and mounting public discontent over a lack of jobs and basic services.<\/p>\n

Jonas, who served as Zuma\u2019s deputy finance minister from 2014 to 2016 before being fired, alleged three years ago that members of the Gupta family offered him a bribe and the finance minister\u2019s post in exchange for furthering their business interests – a proposal he rejected.<\/p>\n

The Guptas were friends with Zuma and have been linked to numerous cases of corruption at state companies. They and Zuma deny wrongdoing.<\/p>\n

Jonas 59, who will join telecommunications company MTN Group Ltd as chairman in December, said he still has hope that the country can get back on track.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy theory is that we are not going to get a major blowout, like you have in Venezuela,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to bring back growth and refocus ourselves as a country. We need to go back and find each other as a nation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Read: Rand\u2019s strong run expected to continue despite ongoing unrest<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

South Africa is in a precarious state and urgent action is needed to stabilize its finances, according to former Deputy Finance Minister Mcebisi Jonas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":160653,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[26,1120],"class_list":["post-339723","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mobile","tag-headline","tag-mtn-group"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339723","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\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=339723"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339723\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":339729,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339723\/revisions\/339729"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/160653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=339723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=339723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=339723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}