CAPE TOWN: There’s a major fraud investigation against Pravin Gordhan, the finance minister of South Africa, his job is on the line, but the acid test is – will he come out smelling of roses? His resolve to maintain fiscal discipline and avoid a junk credit rating is facing a severe test. Gordhan will present his mid-term budget in Cape Town on October 26, 2016. While the fraud case that prosecutors are scheduled to bring to court on November 2 has fuelled speculation that Gordhan will be fired, the likelihood of that happening eased last week after he won backing from the Cabinet and President Jacob Zuma appointed him to an education task force.
The fraud charges relate to the granting of early retirement of Ivan Pillay from the South African Revenue Service. Gordhan has called the fraud charges “frivolous” and a political stitch-up. World-renowned scenario planner and strategist Clem Sunter says: “Pravin Gordhan is perfectly right to fight this case unless there is something that has not been revealed by the person who is prosecuting him because it looks to me like something that is not a big deal.” Political analyst Justice Malala said some of SA’s institutions “will be used to fight” the battle between “divided” African National Congress (ANC) comrades.
ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe says there’s no reason for Gordhan to step down. He says Gordhan can continue being finance minister and still deal with the fraud charge against him. “You have a court case, you deal with that, but you do your work. People don’t stop doing their work because they have court cases.” Meanwhile, Freedom Under Law and the Helen Suzman Foundation are aiming to stop the fraud case against Gordhan. They have lodged legal papers, saying the National Prosecuting Authority’s (NPA) charges of fraud against Gordhan have no merit, and can only have been brought for ulterior purposes.
Also, Gordhan has top 81 CEOs of the country in his corner. “We stand as one for the rule of law and against the decision to prosecute the Minister of Finance on charges that are, according to the preponderance of expert legal opinion, without factual or legal foundation and not in the public interest,” the CEOs, who form part of the CEO Initiative, said in a press statement.
Sixty-seven-year-old Gordhan and Zuma have been having a long-running argument over the affordability of nuclear power plants the president wants to build, and the management of state companies and the national tax agency. And then there are allegations of Gupta family’s undue influence in the Zuma government. Gordhan produced an affidavit this month implicating members of the Gupta family, who are friends of Zuma, and companies they control in “suspicious transactions” valued at R6.8-billion during the past four years. The Guptas have always denied any wrongdoing and called the allegations “undiluted nonsense”.
