* Finance Minister likely to announce wider deficit
* Fiscal laxity risks rating downgrades
* Gordhan has little clout in ANC politics
* Hardworker at Treasury, respected by many
JOHANNESBURG, Feb 22 (Reuters) – Finance Minister
Pravin Gordhan’s agreeable manner was just what South African
President Jacob Zuma needed to keep the peace between warring
factions of the ruling ANC, but his affability may ultimately
cost Africa’s biggest economy dear.
When he presents the budget on Wednesday, Gordhan is
expected to unveil a widening of the 2012 deficit, and an
extended time frame for balancing South Africa’s books – laxity
that is unlikely to sit well with bond markets.
Having inherited a ministry in 2009 which had a fearsome
reputation for resisting pressure to spend, the treasury under
Gordhan has seen a steady erosion of its powers and political
clout within the ruling African National Congress (ANC).
“He’s seen as a technocrat,” said Azar Jammine, chief
economist at consultancy Econometrix. “He was appointed partly
because he is an ANC supporter but I don’t think he’s seen as a
major politician – just a finance minister.”
When he became minister, South Africa was wallowing in its
first recession in almost two decades and unions and the ANC’s
communist allies were pushing for an end to the
investor-friendly policies that had kept a tight lid on spending
since the end of apartheid in 1994.
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