Readers’ Views

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Whatever Moody’s says, the economy is in dire straits

Hilary Joffe suggests in her column, “Moody ’s perspective delivers a mild mood boost” (September 16), that the ratings agency appears sanguine on our future prospects.

Its sovereign analyst, Lucie Villa, claiming SA is less reliant on external funding than Turkey, is questionable.

The fact that China has come to our aid with massive loans seems to contradict her assessment, and comparing us with Turkey is hardly a yardstick — comparisons, in any event, are odious. Also, our national debt is nearing 60% of revenue, which is unlikely to stabilise any time soon.

The fiscus is also burdened with the liabilities of our SOES and our collapsing municipalities, making President Cyril Ramaphosa’s mission to sell SA Inc as an attractive destination for foreign investment more and more difficult.

This is not helped by the proposed land grab of private property.

There is a chance that Moody’s sentiment could become dismal in the coming months, not necessarily because of our economy but because of the political machinations of Jacob Zuma and his gang, which could have serious consequences that undermine our future.

The only hope we have is that the Reserve Bank will remain under the steady hand of Lesetja Kganyago, and that finance minister Nhlanhla Nene reins in expenditure.

But recovery is a long way off — we are in dire straits, let’s face it.

Ted O’Connor, Johannesburg

Get back to rugby’s roots

The article “Rugby playing a losing financial game” (September 16) refers. In simple terms, there is too much rugby being played in stadiums that are far too big for the market.

Stadium tickets are way too expensive, and the monopoly hold over TV rights is throttling the general populace’s appetite for the game.

The pruning shears need to be used extensively to get back to the roots that made rugby exciting to watch. Stephen Williams, on Businesslive

Returns, not race, the issue

With reference to Andile Khumalo’s column ,“Hope as black asset managers multiply” (September 16), I’m not sure if anyone else agrees, but I really do not give two hoots as to whether my money management company is black-owned or whiteowned. I care rather about the returns it is providing.

Christopher Andrade, on Businesslive

To be honest, very few people even bother with the identities and names of asset managers.

When people talk asset management, the discussion is performance and fees.

David de Beer, on Businesslive