He was Sars commissioner between 1999 and 2009. He went on to urge South African’s to “protect the integrity of the treasury” in a public statement in May, outlining the huge pressure that he and his family were under with ongoing reports of his imminent arrest.
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The Presidency has noted the society’s concerns over the investigation by the the Hawks involving Gordhan as well as other former SARB officials, Ngqulunga said. South Africa has been one of the better performing emerging markets of 2016, rising 29.8% so far this year.
On Thursday, the presidency defended plans to give Zuma supervision over state-owned firms after Gordhan’s allies said this would limit the finance minister’s control.
According to Peter Attard Montalto, Nomura research analyst and head of emerging markets, Minister of Co-operative Governance and close-Zuma ally Des van Rooyen could make a resurgence in the battle of suitors vying for Gordhan’s post, should Gordhan be fired.
“It’s political turmoil and investors in the worldwide market don’t like the fact that there’s a possibility that Pravin Gordhan could go as finance minister”, Wichard Cilliers, a trader at Treasuryone (Pty) Ltd., told Bloomberg.
“They basically realised that over the last couple of days that we’ve priced out political risk in South Africa to zero and this is the wake-up call saying that political risk shouldn’t actually be zero”, he said. Figures for the second quarter are due out in early September. Should they also show a contraction, the economy will be technically in a recession.
Gordhan has pledged to rein in government expenditure to limit rising inflation, narrow a gaping budget deficit and appease ratings agencies considering cutting South Africa to “junk” status in reviews expected by December.
Ramaphosa was speaking at a funeral service for late Former Sports Minister Makhenkesi Stofile at Fort Hare University today, as Gordhan sat in the audience.
“This is all part of a plot to oust Gordhan”, political analyst Prince Mashele said.
Opposition leader Mmusi Maimane, whose Democratic Alliance party took control of major cities following August 3 local government polls, said in a statement that “the Gordhan witch-hunt is Zuma’s road to the Treasury’s keys”.
If the goal is to replace Mr Gordhan with someone more amenable to signing the cheques for the nuclear deal, logically soon is the time to do it.
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“As is normal in South African culture, we harp on about the worst possible outcome, but there is still the possibility that some civil agreement could come from this, and the rand return to previous levels”.
