{"id":8216,"date":"2012-02-22T14:24:59","date_gmt":"2012-02-22T12:24:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/02\/newsmaker-s-africa-may-pay-for-gordhans-amiability\/"},"modified":"2012-02-22T14:24:59","modified_gmt":"2012-02-22T12:24:59","slug":"newsmaker-s-africa-may-pay-for-gordhans-amiability","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/newsmaker-s-africa-may-pay-for-gordhans-amiability\/","title":{"rendered":"NEWSMAKER-S.Africa may pay for Gordhan&#8217;s amiability"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t<span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>* Finance Minister likely to announce wider deficit<span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>* Fiscal laxity risks rating downgrades<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>* Gordhan has little clout in ANC politics<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>* Hardworker at Treasury, respected by many<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>JOHANNESBURG, Feb 22 (Reuters) &#8211; Finance Minister<br \/>\nPravin Gordhan&#8217;s agreeable manner was just what South African<br \/>\nPresident Jacob Zuma needed to keep the peace between warring<br \/>\nfactions of the ruling ANC, but his affability may ultimately<br \/>\ncost Africa&#8217;s biggest economy dear.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>When he presents the budget on Wednesday, Gordhan is<br \/>\nexpected to unveil a widening of the 2012 deficit, and an<br \/>\nextended time frame for balancing South Africa&#8217;s books &#8211; laxity<br \/>\nthat is unlikely to sit well with bond markets.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Having inherited a ministry in 2009 which had a fearsome<br \/>\nreputation for resisting pressure to spend, the treasury under<br \/>\nGordhan has seen a steady erosion of its powers and political<br \/>\nclout within the ruling African National Congress (ANC).<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He&#8217;s seen as a technocrat,&#8221; said Azar Jammine, chief<br \/>\neconomist at consultancy Econometrix. &#8220;He was appointed partly<br \/>\nbecause he is an ANC supporter but I don&#8217;t think he&#8217;s seen as a<br \/>\nmajor politician &#8211; just a finance minister.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>When he became minister, South Africa was wallowing in its<br \/>\nfirst recession in almost two decades and unions and the ANC&#8217;s<br \/>\ncommunist allies were pushing for an end to the<br \/>\ninvestor-friendly policies that had kept a tight lid on spending<br \/>\nsince the end of apartheid in 1994.<br \/>\n\u00a0 <span class=\"label\"><strong>Continued&#8230;<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>* 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) &#8211; Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan&#8217;s agreeable manner was just what South African President Jacob Zuma needed to keep the peace between warring [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-8216","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8216","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8216"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8216\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}