Politically Correct, And Frightened To Say The Least

South Africa is a very charged country! Or is it the people of South Africa that are charged? We have big hearts, and are victims of our own emotions, as we stand behind what we believe in. We use phrases like "own goals" or "head winds" as we rationalise that the world is getting harder to live in. We know and understand that it is a world tougher to survive in, never mind thrive. So I am disappointed, that knowing this, be you in the private sector or public sector, the actions we see, do not seem to echo the sentiment.

I, as probably most of the people who are not in the know, am befuddled by the announcement that Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene was fired. After all, it was only a couple of months ago that our president himself was saying "we all need to tighten our belts". Minister Nene, was an advocate for fiscal discipline, and so moving him out of the Finance Minister role, when the economic climate is so turbulent, leaves the world with "more negative questions than positive questions", as ratings agency Fitch said this morning.  

We are inches away from losing our investment grade as a country, being relegated into junk status. S&P, changed their outlook on South Africa from stable to negative just last week Friday. This surprising move, does not help our case. Have influential circles stopped caring about what the world thinks and how they measure us? 

We can brag about our good weather, and beautiful country, our good food and our good wine, and how a weak currency makes us attractive for tourism, but we can't all be in the tourism industry. 

We have a steel industry that is challenged by the glut of steel production from China. Evraz Highveld Steel is in business rescue and Arcllor Mittal are struggling. Those are real jobs that will be shed.

Commodity prices continue to fall, a huge revenue earner for the country in U.S. Dollars. Lonmin is cutting jobs and the company's share price is a good 94% less than it was not too long ago. 

The industrial metals we are enriched with, are in less demand and this demand decline continues. Anglo American is postponing further investment and is looking at restructuring the group, with a plan of employing only 50,000 people (a couple of years ago Anglo American has about 162,000 people on its payroll).

We have drought problems that mean our agricultural sector is about to go through pain that is unimaginable. That means the cost of food will go up, from the basic bag of mealie meal, to the price of chicken, the cheapest of our meat proteins.

With the odds stacked against us, we need a Cabinet that brings their A Game, and Minister Nhlanhla Nene demonstrated to be one of those. What strategic position could he be going to fill, that is larger and more pivotal than the current one he had? That is, the job of managing the government's financial affairs!