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US ratings agencies must choose South Africa's next president, says former minister

THE ANC's women's and youth leagues have slammed threats of a credit downgrade for South Africa if Vice-President Cyril Rampahosa is not anointed president.
The the two structures, who support Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma for election as party president at next month's ANC congress, spoke out on Saturday after former minister Pravin Gordhan's comments to a meeting in Johannesburg's posh Sandton business district on Thursday night. 
Mr Gordhan said: "If we support Ramaphosa I can guarantee you we will not see a downgrade. 
"If we get that team going we have no worries about downgrades, we will see a change in growth."
The ANC Women's League said it was "irresponsible, self-serving and advancing of narrow political agenda for any ANC leader to indirectly lobby for rating agencies to downgrade South Africa if his/her candidate does not emerge."
And the Youth League said Mr Gordhan had made it clear "rating agencies are not apolitical and there are people within and outside the ANC that are lobbying the rating agencies to support their own narrow political agenda."
The US-based agencies downgraded South Africa after Mr Gordhan's sacking in a March cabinet reshuffle -- which also prompted trade union federation Cosatu to join the South African Communist Party (SACP) in calling for President Jacob Zuma's resignation.
Cosatu has since backed the former miners' leader turned businessman Mr Ramaphosa's candidacy. 
But he and Ms Dlamini-Zuma are running neck-a-neck in terms of branch nominations ahead of the congress.
The SACP's constitution forbids it from backing any candidate, but it invited Mr Ramaphosa to speak at its July congress in place of Mr Zuma – where party leaders threatened to oppose the ANC in the 2019 general election if a "faction" wins the ANC presidency.

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