A JAUNDICED EYE
For once, the ANC Youth League has it right. Pravin Gordhan should immediately stand down as Minister of Finance.
Well, I think that’s what the ANCYL is demanding. Its public utterances are habitually so incoherent and jargon-ridden that, much like those from the ANC Women’s League that also wants Gordhan gone, it is difficult sometimes to know what exactly it is that they are trying to say.
For instance, a fortnight ago the ANCYL bizarrely described Public Protector Thuli Madonsela as a “popcorn”, who is advancing a US agenda of regime change. It also inexplicably referred to controversial South African Airways chair Dudu Myeni, who consistently rebuts claims that she is one of President Jacob Zuma’s lovers, as Dudu Myeni-Zuma. So are we to understand that they are not lovers, just joined at the hips by a hyphen?
But I digress. The ANCYL wants Gordhan out of the Cabinet in order that the “economy can stabilise”, explaining that overseas investors are being frightened away by “cloud around Gordhan’s head”. The ANCWL, in its own gobbledygook release, says that the National Prosecuting Authority prosecution of Gordhan “clearly indicate that there is no individual subjected to the manipulation of the law and law enforcement agencies to ulterior political motives”.
These scripted responses, seemingly compiled using the ANC’s random word generator, are pretty much the standard position taken by that section of the ANC that has already succumbed to state capture. Their position is that the moment that there was a criminal charge against Gordhan, he was duty bound to resign.
But, with rare exceptions, this is a departure from standard ANC practice. Whatever the organisation’s ethical position might be in theory, those accused of crimes — sometimes very serious crimes — mostly have been allowed to continue in their jobs, shielded by an expedient mantra of “innocent until proven guilty”.
There is a notable exception. Jacob Zuma was forced by former president Thabo Mbeki to resign as his deputy. This followed upon Zuma being implicated in the conviction of his patron, Schabir Shaik, on corruption and fraud charges. Zuma also resigned his parliamentary seat.
Although Mbeki dressed up the dismissal of Zuma in high-toned morality, it had nothing to do with good governance. He had long wanted to be rid of Zuma and this was a convenient way of doing so.
The moves against Gordhan, using the NPA as a pawn, are similarly politically tainted. This is a group desperate to be rid of the one irksome man who stands between them and the Treasury vaults.
There the similarity ends. Zuma eventually was charged with 783 counts of corruption, fraud and racketeering, and he has been desperately ducking and diving since then. In contrast, there is a single charge against Gordhan and it is exceedingly flimsy.
The merits and motivations for the prosecution of Gordhan are irrelevant. Those are for the judiciary to determin. What is immediately important is to abide by an established practice in successful democracies — that public figures charged with serious offences should not continue to occupy powerful jobs.
Gordhan, a self-proclaimed man of honour and virtue, should relinquish his ministerial position. In doing so, he will render South Africa an incalculable service, for he will through his example make it well nigh impossible for the ANC in future to shield accused officials and representatives.
Nor does this mean surrendering the field to his foes. There is an adroit political manoeuvre that would satisfy honour while stymying the state-capture gang.
The solution is not to resign, but simply to take leave of absence until the issue is resolved. The ministry will then in the interim be left in the capable hands of Deputy Minister Mcebisi Jonas. That, after all, is what deputies are for.
Obviously, this is not a long-term solution. It needn’t be, for there are already signals aplenty that such an arrangement would swiftly become redundant.
Legal experts, except for NPA head Shaun Abrahams, are virtually unanimous that Gordhan is unlikely to be convicted. Indeed, it is unlikely that the alleged offence — approving a former colleague’s early retirement package and the man’s subsequent reappointment on a contract , all of which was first run past the Public Service Commission — is even a criminal offence.
The shaky legal nature of the Gordhan prosecution has quickly become apparent. Only a day after announcing it among great fanfare at a packed media briefing, Abrahams was back-peddling furiously. On Wednesday he told Parliament that he was “more than willing” to review the matter if anybody asked him to.
For now, Gordhan should step into the wings. When he soon enough returns to centre stage, both his political position and the prospects of eventual good governance in SA will have been immeasurably strengthened.
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