Gordhan warns SA that Brexit will impact on the rand
No showers worked at New Beach. Of the showers on the beachfront 17 out of 42 were not working. monitor his son on the beach because there was broken glass in the sand.
“We love the beach and coming here with family is always special, but the bad management from the officials and their not taking any initiative to solve the existing issues may cost them their credibility,” said Van Staaden.
Busi Mzimela, from the South Coast, said the toilets were “smelly and dirty” and she preferred to “go” in the sea.
PR councillor for the beachfront Avrille Coen said it had been a five-year battle to get the municipality to clean up the beaches.
“All our correspondence sent to the city has fallen on deaf ears. They wanted to implement a beach manager who was to handle the day-today running of the beachfront but that did not materialise,” she said.
Head of Durban Tourism Phillip Sithole said he was aware of the problems and was working with the city to resolve maintenance issues and make improvements.
“The department of strategic projects issued tenders in May and we are now awaiting appointment of service providers. I am certain that soon these issues will be resolved,” said Sithole.
Mayor of eThekwini Municipality, James Nxumalo, who wrote a strong letter to the people of Durban about littering which was published in the Tribune last week, said he was unaware of the problems as they were not reported to him during executive meetings.
“This is a critical time for us as the holidays bring in hundreds of visitors. We will try to sort out existing issues by next week Friday,” said Nxumalo. FINANCE Minister Pravin Gordhan has warned that if Britain pulls out of the EU this week, it will “complicate life” for South Africa.
Brexit, which will be decided on Thursday, could have a significant impact on the global economy.
Speaking in Durban yesterday at a function to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the passive resistance movement, Gordhan said: “It may not immediately impact negatively, especially on trade, but the uncertainty could have a serious impact on the country.”
Gordhan was optimistic the economy could be pulled from the brink of recession if “we do the right thing”.
Some economists were not as optimistic. According to Efficient Group chief economist, Dawie Roodt, a global stock market crash was imminent regardless of whether Britain left the EU or not.
There were “too many signs” that the global economy was in trouble, exacerbated by political tensions and problems in the US economy, and, if it hadn’t been for the “exceptionally accommodative” monetary stance of global central banks, the crash would already have happened, he said.
Interest rates of near zero and the US Federal Reserve’s decision to hold off its tightening of monetary policy had merely delayed a “significant financial correction”, which might be triggered by Brexit, but not caused by it, Roodt said.
Economist Dr Iraj Abedian said if Brexit happened and had an adverse impact on the European and global economy, it would have a “disproportionate” negative effect on South Africa.
On its own, the outcome of the referendum on Thursday should be neutral either way, but the concern was the economic impact.
“By definition, the two immediately impacted regions are going to be the UK and the EU as a bloc. Those two are important trading partners of South Africa, and any adverse effect on their economies is going to negatively affect South Africa,” Abedian said.
Roodt said he believed a “leave” victory would, ironically, strengthen the euro, as well as the dollar, but weaken the pound and smaller currencies, including the rand.
The first channel through which the impact could be transmitted to South Africa would be uncertainty resulting from a decision to leave.
A second channel would be a “risk-off” scenario as investors became anxious about the uncertain consequences of a “leave” vote.
This would lead to higher inflation and interest rates and weaker growth for South Africa.
Abedian said a “remain” vote could settle the markets.
Roodt agreed but felt this would be short-lived.