[Business Live] SA trade and investment are losing their attraction in UK boardrooms because of corruption and cronyism under Jacob Zuma, says former British government minister Peter Hain."The perception of this country is very negative," he says.
"In government circles, too, SA is plunging down the priority ladder."
The country, he says, has lost the moral authority it enjoyed under Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki. The state of public finances is also causing concern.
Yes of course, Madiba and Mbeki, paragons of moral authority.
All is not lost, however. "Civil society here is very strong, you have a unique constitution and Thuli Madonsela was a wonderful example of the checks that exist. There is still a sense in London that you can be a success story but the longer bad governance continues, the harder it will be to reverse. And your education in African schools is absolutely criminal."
Hain, a former Pretoria Boys’ High School pupil who fled to the UK with his family in 1966 and later became a leader of the anti-apartheid campaign to isolate SA sport, is officially Baron Hain of Neath these days, after gaining a life peerage in 2015. Neath is the Welsh constituency he represented as a Labour Party MP between 1991 and 2015.
Hain was in Johannesburg last week to teach at Wits Business School, where he is a visiting professor. This week, he is back in the House of Lords, where he is campaigning against the Conservative government’s plans to withdraw Britain from the EU.