Reviews by rating agencies important to S. Africa: Zuma

Reviews by rating agencies are important for South Africa, but "our problem is we are politicizing a downgrade," President Jacob Zuma said on Wednesday.

A rating review "encourages us to improve, reignite growth and improve global competitiveness," Zuma said while answering questions in Parliament.

The problem with South Africans is that they're "politicizing" the decision that ratings agencies are about to make on the country's sovereign credit rating, said Zuma.

Zuma was making a final appearance for the year in Parliament to answer tough questions on issues including the government's plans to stave off economic decline, funding for higher education and the state of capture report about Zuma's links with the Indian Gupta family which allegedly meddled in South Africa's politics.

The president was speaking as international rating agencies -- Moody's, Fitch and Standard & Poor-- will decide shortly whether to retain South Africa's sovereign credit rating, or to downgrade it.

Rating reviews will promote the interests of the country and tell people good opportunities that they must exploit, said Zuma.

Zuma said the only issue is that other countries don't politicize ratings agencies.

But for South Africans, "We tend to politicize the gradings," the president said. "We pick and choose what we think ratings agencies will talk about."

He said the government's efforts to introduce labour market reforms are a positive step towards staving off sovereign credit ratings downgrades.

There have been worries that South Africa will be given junk status due to many outstanding issues facing the country.

The current rank assigned by Moody's is two notches above sub-investment grade (with a negative outlook). Fellow agencies Fitch and Standard & Poor's both rank South Africa just one notch above junk status.

Zuma said a number of countries had been downgraded earlier this year, including the UK, Russia and Brazil.

"I'm sure some of you here have heard for the first time that all these countries -- big and small -- have been downgraded," Zuma said.

"But here we make a big issue of it even though the ratings agencies haven't even arrived yet," he said. Enditem