Standard Bank’s chief economist, Goolam Ballim, said at the bank’s economic briefing for 2007 on Tuesday that while the economic vista in 2007 would essentially be benign, the political atmosphere could be violent.
“This year South Africans will more earnestly agonise over the presidency in 2009. The ANC’s policy conference in June and the party’s presidential elections in December are fundamental to the succession subject, which is more immediately defined by the theatre around Jacob Zuma’s alleged moral deficit on the one hand, and arresting caustic public expressions towards President Mbeki on the other,” said Ballim.
“It is plausible that the contest may hardly fashion a manifestly altered economic and social model in the end, but, in the interim, government efficacy may be eroded not so much by incompetence as by impotence,” he said.
“There could be tinkering in the margins rather than wholesale alteration,” he explained.
“In sum, there is less to be optimistic about in the year ahead. Indeed, 2007 will be riskier, delicate and turbulent. Still, one can’t but relish the opportunity to seize the day and beat the odds,” he concluded. – I-Net Bridge