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I have today written to Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan to request an urgent meeting to discuss the National Treasury's response to the recent downgrades in South Africa's sovereign debt ratings.

On Friday, Standard & Poor's downgraded South Africa's debt to BBB from BBB+. This follows close on the heels of a similar downgrade from Moody's two weeks ago.

Minister Gordhan must use the upcoming Medium Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS) to hold the fiscal line by cutting wasteful expenditure and table a set of policy reforms that will boost job creation and drive growth. This is the only way he will stem the decline in South Africa's credit ratings.

In addition, Ministers in the various economic portfolios must do what they can to reassure investors that government will not bow to pressure from populist elements within the ANC to nationalise strategic assets - such as mines.

Next week the DA will be tabling a comprehensive preview of the MTBPS, but I also seek to meet with the Minister ahead of his speech to discuss how best to convince the ratings agencies to change their negative outlook for our economy.

In particular, I want to discuss the status of the four main initiatives announced in the Budget in February this year namely:
- The public sector infrastructure programme;
- Support for industrial development and special economic zones;
- Expansion of employment programmes; and
- Improvements in further education and skills development.

It is not clear that progress has been made in any of these four areas in the past eight months and I will be urging the Minister to announce a radical turnaround in this situation next week.