Read also: S&P cuts Brazil credit rating to junk status. SA must brace for the same "The debt metrics that the ratings agencies look at are probably going to put us on the back foot," Thando Vokwana, a currency trader at FirstRand Ltd.'s Johannesburg-based Rand Merchant Bank unit, said by phone on Oct. 22. "You could see a possible downgrade coming and in that case South Africa is so reliant on external funding that it would spell disaster."