Andrew Canter upbeat about direction SA’s going, despite its economic challenges

JOHANNESBURG — The Chief Investment Officer of Futuregrowth, Andrew Canter, was in the spotlight in 2016 when the fund manager took the unprecedented step of halting lending to six major SOEs. After reviewing these SOEs and conducting further reviews, Futuregrowth cleared some of them. Earlier this year, Futuregrowth also made the news again when it released a report entitled 'SOE Governance Unmasked', in which it decried the lack of transparency at SOEs in South Africa, especially for those companies with listed bonds. In this interview, Canter provides updates on these two previous developments as well as his views on why he's still positive about South Africa, despite a current technical recession and a weak rand. (I apologise for some small parts of the audio where my dog can be heard barking in the background. The interview is so good that I couldn't cut it out) – Gareth van Zyl

On the line is the Chief Investment Officer of Futuregrowth, Andrew Canter. Andrew, it's a pleasure to chat to you. We currently have the Zondo Commission into State Capture in South Africa and I thought it was interesting that in a recent article, you were quoted as saying that we almost lost the country. Do you think then that the days of State Capture and cronyism are fully behind us?

Look, it seems to us that the direction of travel of the current administration and the way they're actually shining a light on what's gone on with the malfeasance and the State Capture is a very good sign. The direction of travel is the right way. Obviously, how it plays out in elections and politics and policy… We all have to wait and see but we're getting more comfortable than we certainly were a year ago.

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