Standard Bank CEO Sim Tshabalala warned that persistent racial inequality and racism were a risk to South Africa's stability and, ultimately, its economic growth. The country's competitiveness is "badly eroded by incomplete transformation and by racism," Tshabalala said, just over a week after Standard Bank suspended Chris Hart, an investment strategist, for tweeting that the victims of apartheid are "increasing along with a sense of entitlement and hatred towards minorities".The bank said the comments had "racist undertones" and Hart later apologised, saying that his tweet was meant to be read in the context of a slowing economy.In recent weeks, there has also been a public outcry over KwaZulu-Natal estate agent Penny Sparrow describing black beachgoers as monkeys, and government employee Velaphi Khumalo calling on blacks to "act as Hitler did to the Jews".Said Tshabalala: "What the last few days have taught us, I believe, is that we now need a new phase of open and serious dialogue about race and racism."[As a bank] we need this dialogue because a large part of our business is risk management and because country risk directly affects the cost of capital."Blacks on average still earn six times less than whites, while g overnment policies to promote blacks have mostly helped a small black elite."Transformation is a commercial imperative for the group," Tshabalala said. "South Africa's extremely high level of inequality creates grave risks to the quality of our politics, to the strength of our institutions and to the stability of our society."These worsen South Africa's business environment and our country risk ratings which, in turn, damage our prospects for faster and more inclusive growth."Standard & Poor's cut the outlook on the country's BBB- credit rating to negative from stable last month, indicating it may downgrade South Africa's debt to junk...