ANCWL slams S&P’s SA chief

THE ANC Women’s League has launched a scathing attack on Standard & Poor’s head in South Africa, Konrad Reuss, for warning of a possible downgrade if President Jacob Zuma reshuffled his cabinet.

Speculation is mounting of a cabinet reshuffle in the coming weeks, and Reuss said this would affect South Africa’s review by the rating agency later this year.

Rating agencies are expected to conduct another assessment in the next six months.

However, Reuss said there would be a serious impact in South Africa’s credit rating if there were changes in the government.

ANCWL secretary-general Meokgo Matuba said the government and the ANC could not be dictated to by Reuss.

She said Reuss must declare whose interests he was serving if he threatened of an impact on the country’s credit rating by S&P if Zuma reshuffled his cabinet.

Matuba described Reuss’s remarks as intimidating the state.

She said Reuss was undermining Zuma’s prerogative to appoint whoever he wanted in the cabinet.

“Furthermore, Mr Reuss said that when going to ANC leadership elections later in the year, it has to do the right thing,” said Matuba.

“Since its inception in 1912, the ANC has been doing the right thing, in particular when electing its leaders,” she said.

Matuba said Reuss must stop his downgrade scare tactics.

The ANC succession battle has intensified in recent weeks. Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, one of the frontrunners, is completing her term as African Union Commission chairperson in Addis Ababa tomorrow.

Speculation has been rife that Zuma wants to include Dlamini Zuma in his cabinet.

She is backed by the ANCWL, the ANC Youth League and Umkhonto weSizwe Military Veterans Association.