The Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) is confident that a post-Mandela era will not affect inflow of foreign investments into Africa's largest stock exchange.

Head of Investor Relations at JSE, Michelle Joubert, does not believe that the anticipated outcome of former President of South Africa, Nelson Mandela's health will in any way affect foreign investment.

“A number of factors affect market swings, therefore we are not always able to pre-empt what will happen next. As for Mandela, I consider it insensitive to breach the subject as if he was already dead, but we don't see any reason why foreign investment would decline,” said Joubert.

She was addressing reservations by critics that the uncertainty of the political and regulatory climate in terms of policy direction during the Post-Mandela era might scare off foreign investors. Of late, it has been reported that 45 percent of shares within the JSE are held by foreign investors.

In fact, Joubert shuns the panorama of discussing or brainstorming the effect Mandela's passing might have on the stock exchange, as if the man was already dead.

Mandela's ailing health has been a constant breaking news feature for international media ever since the former President was reported to be hospitalized for a serious lung infection. Due to the fragile nature of the stock markets, critics were worried that international investors might be wary of investments in a post-Mandela South Africa, a man whom the international community regarded as the epitome of stability, even though he was no longer directly influential in policy making.

Addressing journalists from different African countries during their tour of the JSE, courtesy of the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the no-nonsense, tough as nails Head of Investor Relations, said that she believes the JSE would not be affected simply because they have been around for a long time. In fact, she believes the JSE might possibly be the oldest Stock Exchange in the continent.

“Regulation of financial markets in South Africa has been favourable for the JSE so far and we continue to generate a lot of interest from companies outside South Africa for listing,” said Joubert.

Recently, the World Federation of Exchanges (WFE) ranked JSE 3rd in the world in terms of value of bonds traded on an exchange. JSE deals with listing, trading, administering and regulating trades across four markets: equities, Equity Derivatives, Commodity Derivatives and Interest rate products.

Adding to the Exchange's list of achievements, the WEF's Global Competitiveness Survey 2012-2013 ranked South Africa 3rd out of 144 countries for its ability to raise finance through the local equity market. It was also ranked first in terms of auditing and reporting standard, for protection of legal rights and in terms of effectiveness of corporate boards.

“JSE is now currently investing energy into growing the section of Exchange Traded Funds (EFTs) throughout the continent,” said Joubert.

The stock exchange also declared building an Equity market business model as one of their key strategic initiatives for 2013, alongside new equity derivatives technology, post trade repositioning and Post Trade Services, OTC clearing business, to mention a few.