The Gordhan witch-hunt is Zuma’s road to the Treasury’s keys

24 August 2016

The Democratic Alliance (DA) welcomes this afternoon’s announcement by Finance Minister, Pravin Gordhan, indicating that he will not be presenting himself to the Hawks tomorrow – this despite being requested to do so by the Head of the Directorate of Priority Crimes Investigation, Major General Ntlemeza.

This follows the latest development in a Zuma-mandated witch-hunt against Pravin Gordhan, being carried out by the current SARS Commissioner and Zuma lackey, Tom Moyane. 

This announcement marks the beginning of a fight back by Minister Gordhan against President Zuma’s witch-hunt, levelled against the very man who holds the keys to the nation’s public purse - the National Treasury. 

In his statement, Minister Gordhan stated that assertions of law made by the Hawks are “wholly unfounded" and that he has been advised that his conduct was at all times entirely lawful.

Pravin Gordhan has not made himself popular since his appointment as Finance Minister last December, by taking principled and correct decisions against those closest to Zuma, including Dudu Myeni at SAA, current SARS Commissioner Tom Moyane, and the infamous Gupta family.

This matter is more than simply factional warfare within the ANC. Zuma knows his days are swiftly coming to an end – both as President of the ANC and of the country - and has now begun to accelerate his personal project of state capture, in order to centralise power and get his hands on the people’s money to continue enriching himself and his band of cronies.

This acceleration kicked off earlier this week when President Zuma was placed in charge of the “Presidential SOCs Coordinating Council”, which will exercise authority over all State-Owned Companies. According to Cabinet, this body “will provide President Zuma line of sight on strategic decisions and interventions” in relation to all SOC’s.

President Zuma has absolutely no regard for this country or its citizens. He cares only for himself and those connected to him. Already, yesterday’s revelations that the Hawks were closing in on Minister Gordhan caused immediate damage to the value of our currency. The rand dropped nearly 3.41% to R13.96 - a three-week low.

Economic stability and the almost 9 million unemployed South Africans are of little worry to a President who is hell-bent on enriching himself, and keeping out of jail. 

While we as the DA fully respect the Rule of Law and due process, we are in full support of anyone who stands up to Jacob Zuma and his project of capturing the state and its machinery to further his own nefarious agenda.

The people of South Africa spoke on 3 August this year by removing the ANC in the biggest cities in the country, and come 2019 they will remove President Zuma and his ANC once and for all.

Statement issued by DA leader, Mmusi Maimane, 24 August 2016