RAMAPHOSA DROWNING IN DENIALISM

Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa must take us for fools. Replete with empty platitudes, he recently told South Africans that the country's sovereign credit rating would not be downgraded to junk status. One can only conclude that he did so with the upcoming World Economic Forum on Africa in mind, where he and the country's delegation will likewise take foreign investors for fools. They, like us, see through Ramaphosa's self-serving talking points. What Ramaphosa will discover, however, on his visit to Rwanda is that the world is no longer interested in us. True to form Ramaphosa did not back up his "firm belief" that South Africa would avoid a downgrade to junk status. No facts, or statistical data, or divine intervention - nothing at all! This is not the time for Ramaphosa to deny reality, and an uncomfortable truth - the country's credit rating will be cut to junk. All economic and political indicators point to a downgrade to junk status, underscored recently by Moody's confirmation of the country's credit rating at Baa2, but adjusting the outlook from stable to negative. Surely Ramophosa should rather prepare the nation for the onset of extreme economic hardship instead of creating a false sense of hope. Churchill must have had Ramaphosa in mind when he said: "There is no worse mistake in public leadership than to hold out false hope soon to be swept away".