EFF statement on the so-called veterans defence of the incompetent Pravin Gordhan

18 January 2020

The Economic Freedom Fighters rejects, with contempt, the lousy defence of Pravin Gordhan by the so-called struggle veterans; who have thrown out principle on the alter of self-enrichment for convenience. The so-called veterans have reduced themselves into a defence force of Pravin Gordhan, even in the face of his spectacular incompetence in the oversight and guidance of State-Owned Companies.

It is without any doubt that since he was appointed minister of public enterprises, responsible for some of the State-Owned Companies, Pravin Gordhan has brought unprecedented levels of destabilisation, chaos through incompetent interferences and banishment of African leadership in all the SOCs under his political oversight. As a result of Pravin Gordhan's interferences and incompetence; the following are a reality:

1. ESKOM is in a huge debt of more than R400 billion and losing capacity to provide dependable electricity to the people of South Africa.

2. SAA is in a debt of more than R25 billion, has been handed over to a white only team of Business Rescue and there is no foreseeable recovery.

3. TRANSNET's capacity to reliably provide logistics to South Africa's economy has been undermined. It has been more than a year that the Group CEO has been fired and there has been no replacements to date, virtually everyone on the leadership team of TRANSNET is Acting and therefore there is no full accountability.

4. SA Express has not been fully operational and will also be placed under business rescue without any believable recovery plan

5. Alexkor received a disclaimer opinion and reported a loss of RI 49m for the year 2018/19. The board has been dissolved and an Administrator appointed, despite this intervention, there are no signs of possible recovery.

6. SAFCOL has not met any of its key performance areas with regards to Financial Sustainability for the financial year 2018/19 and has received Qualified Reports 2 years consecutively.

7. DENEL has also recorded more than R900m losses and received Disclaimer Audit Reports 2 years consecutively.

All these anomalies happen under the incompetent guidance of Pravin Gordhan whose ultimate intention is to collapse these State-Owned Companies so that the white capitalist establishment he serves can take these over for nothing. We are aware that Gordhan works with the capitalist establishment, has direct shares in almost all Stellenbosch companies, private banks, investment banks and stands to personally benefit from the destabilisation of State-Owned Companies.

Amidst these, the so-called veterans choose to sing for supper by defending Pravin Gordhan. On close inspection, some of these so-called veterans serve in the boards of companies controlled by the Stellenbosch Mafia, particularly REMGRO companies. Some of these so-called veterans are historically associated with the United Democratic Front (UDF) Cabal led by Pravin Gordhan and was used as an instrument to undermine real freedom fighters.

The people of South Africa should know these charlatans for who they are, a self-enrichment choir for the white capitalist establishment used to protect incompetent representatives in government. Our demand that Pravin Gordhan Must Fall remains firm and we once again caution Mr. Cyril Ramaphosa that if he defends Gordhan, they will fall together. The EFF does not make threats when it comes to the defence of our State-Owned Companies and institutions, we make commitments.

It should be noted that we as the vanguard movement, with absolute love for our country, cannot and will not keep quiet and be spectators when our country is ran down to the dogs.

We make the loudest noise because we understand the role that SOCs have and should play in growing the economy of any country.

Mr Gordhan is leading entities that are very crucial to the growth of the economy of this country and if intervention is not sought immediately, he could collapse and plunge us into junk status. All SOCs are currently on the verge of collapse under the incompetent Gordhan.

These SOCs carry our pride as the nation because with the airline carriers, flying the South African Flag high we are able to connect nations and transport goods from local to international. Whilst unlocking and transporting people and goods via sea and using the railways to link economies and connect Africa.

We refuse to be silenced by those who do not want to accept that their Jamnandas is on the verge of destroying the SOCs which are and should be the pride of the nation. We reiterate our call for Mr Gordhan to be removed from this very important asset of the nation with immediate effect.

Issued by Mbuyiseni Ndlozi, National Spokesperson, EFF, 18 January 2020