IFP: timing of issuance of legal process against Gordhan questionable

11 October 2016

The Inkatha Freedom Party considers the issuing of summons against the Minister of Finance as a ‘strange coincidence’ and the timing of same ‘highly questionable’ given that South Africa is only two weeks away from Minister Gordhan’s presentation of the Medium Term Budget Policy statement. If one recalls this happened some two weeks before the main budget was presented at the beginning of this year when threats of the impending arrest of the Minister did their rounds and now, two weeks before the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement, summons has been issued on other charges which do not include what has been in the news for over a year, namely, the alleged involvement of the Minister when he was head of SARS and the establishment of the so-called ‘rouge unit’.

IFP Chief Whip in Parliament, Mr Narend Singh, MP, said, “Nobody is above the law and it is appropriate that the Minister be given his day in court instead of being threatened on a daily basis. One hopes that the President of the country will take a lead from this example and also subject himself to the courts of this land in terms of the 783 charges that he is refusing to even be put to him. The NPA needs to act firmly and decisively in this regard,”

“We trust that investors both national and international would not allow this current move to dissuade them from investing in South Africa. We have full confidence in our courts and the independence of the Judiciary and the sooner this matter is put to bed, the better for the country and its people,” concluded Singh, MP.

Issued by Narend Singh, IFP Media, Parliament, 11 October 2016