Jonas: economy a casualty of political jostling
Many of SA’s institutions had been forsaken or deliberately weakened over the past decade for political expediency, former finance deputy minister Mcebisi Jonas said on Wednesday.
Jonas, who was among members of the executive fired by President Jacob Zuma in a surprise midnight cabinet reshuffle last week, was giving the keynote address at the AHi Small Business Chamber conference in Centurion.
Speaking on the sidelines of the conference, the former deputy minister, now an ordinary ANC MP, also expressed concern about the Treasury.
But he stopped short of saying whether the fiscus had been plunged into crisis by his and Pravin Gordhan’s abrupt firings, as well as the impending departure of director-general Lungisa Fuzile.
Choosing his words carefully when asked if he had any concerns about the Treasury, he said: “You still have solid capacity in [the] Treasury. Am I worried? Yes, I am.”
Jonas came to prominence when he went public with allegations that the Gupta family had approached him with an offer to take over Nhlanhla Nene’s job as finance minister in late 2015.
He was also one of the confirmed whistle-blowers in former public protector Thuli Madonsela’s investigation into state capture, for whom he deposed an affidavit making the same allegation against the Gupta family.
The Guptas have denied approaching Jonas to offer him Nene’s job.
The former deputy finance minister also touched on the implications of a sovereign credit ratings downgrade, when asked about this, and the work he, Gordhan and others at the Treasury, business and labour had put in to prevent this from happening to SA.
“A lot of work was done between business, government and labour led by minister Pravin Gordhan … to talk to investors and convince them about the trajectory we are taking as a country.
“It’s very clear that trajectory is unlikely to change. The ongoing problem has been two things: whether we’d be able to stick to the fiscal targets we set for ourselves and our growth story is unconvincing.
“Without growth, your fiscal policy is useless because you can’t borrow your way out of poverty. Our borrowing exceeding R2-trillion is not sustainable. The only way to change it is [through] … growth,” he said when responding to questions.
“Dare I suggest that … over the past decade, many institutions have been forsaken or deliberately weakened for political expediency and state transformation has become so politicised that we would be forgiven for thinking that economics is all about political power,” Jonas said in his prepared speech.