Recently Pravin Gordhan, our finance minister, has been “invited” to present himself at the Hawks’ offices at two o’ clock today. He is suspected of breaking such laws relating to the management of public funds, anti-corruption and national strategic intelligence. At the moment Pravin is not planning on attending the meeting. By not subjecting himself to investigation he may seem uncooperative in the war against corruption. But on the other hand, he has a comparatively good track record, and this may make the casual observer believe that the actions against him may be malicious, and that we should stop wasting the man’s time because he has that other little thing on his plate: saving the country’s economy. Tricky! It will be regrettable to distract a good man with so much nonsense that it prevents him from doing his job properly.
Read this to understand how the Hawks are idly subverting due process, no doubt under instructions from the Zumafia who crave the keys to the Treasury—more than ever after LGE2016 splashed some ominous lettering on the wall. If Gordhan were to be charged, Zuma would then have adequate pretext to suspend Gordhan and appoint a new Minister of Finance who is more accommodating. For various reasons, the allegations tabled do not warrant criminal charges. Unless the Hawks are contemplating charges that they haven’t yet revealed, their actions are malicious, Gordhan’s reaction is correct, and his track record as Minister of Finance is not relevant to these matters.
'Luthon64
What I can’t understand is how he (Zuma) gets away with this stuff time after time. We can all see what’s coming, he’s bluff is called, but at the end of the day, he is more entrenched. And now there is apparently talk in the ANCYL of a third term for Zuma. (Sorry, can’t find the story/link now)
For all his obvious faults and bumpkin-like persona, Zuma is sly like a fox. He has surrounded himself with acolytes and yes-men, and placed many of his minions to head up institutions and organisations where they count: Hawks, IPID, parts of SAPS, NPA, SARS and also in many of the SOEs like SAA, PRASA, Eskom, etc. Zuma is acutely in tune with what he needs to do towards self-preservation—a talent he probably cultivated as MK intelligence boss. But there’s no need to despair: There are strong and rising indications that his days as King of South Africa are numbered. More and more people are waking up to his games and are paying close attention to what he’s doing. The current groundswell of support for Gordhan likely doesn’t make for happy dinner talk around the Zuma table.
As for a third term, the ANC will need to amend the Constitution first, and that will require a 75% majority vote or greater in the Legislature. The outcome of the last election renders such an eventuality extremely unlikely.
'Luthon64
The fact that Gordhan told the Hawks to go fuck themselves tells me he knows full well he did nothing wrong. If he did, he would gone to them to try making some deal.
By continuing the persecution, Zuma is playing with fire, because his harassment of Gordhan inflicts economic harm. If Gordhan is arrested, it will be yet another (and perhaps pretty major) economic shock. And then, without a doubt, Gordhan will be found not guilty. In such a scenario, Zuma is going to be under huge pressure from everywhere, including his own party.
I can deal with an incompetent government that does nothing. Here in South Africa, that is perhaps pretty much the best we can hope for. But it gets my panties in a bunch when government seems to be absolutely hell-bent on actively causing harm.
This just in. As Constitutional Law expert Pierre De Vos has pointed out, Zuma, if he really had noble intentions towards Gordhan and the country’s economy, could have suspended Hawks boss Ntlemeza.
Thus, it seems that Zuma is happily playing with fire. Chances are good that it’ll burn him this time.
'Luthon64
I don’t want to know what it is going to do to the economy. Seems to me with this gamble, Zuma will either become as untouchable as Mugabe, or he’s going down.