S. Africa Nationalization Talk Threatens Growth, Tshabalala Says

A debate over the nationalization of South African banks and mines may stall economic growth, slashing jobs and compounding poverty, said Sim Tshabalala, chief executive of Standard Bank Group Ltd.’s local unit.

“The campaign to nationalize the banks is billed to cause a great deal of unnecessary damage to South Africa’s growth and job-creation prospects,” Tshabalala wrote in Johannesburg’s Business Day newspaper today. “If the nationalization debate grinds on for many more months, there will be fewer new businesses, fewer new jobs, more poverty and less development for decades to come.”