SACP statement on the Hawks’ charges against Finance Minister

11 October 2016

No-one – whether the Minister of Finance Comrade Pravin Gordhan or the Hawks should be above the law. The putative charges that the Hawks have, for a while, been making against the Minister who has now apparently been issued with summons in relation to the so-called South African Receiver of Revenue or Sars rogue unit, are a pretext to have him removed from office and weaken the National Treasury’s struggle that he is leading against corruption and corporate capture.

The SACP is strongly opposed to political persecutions in any manifestation.  

The Party has noted the denial of any political involvement in this matter, but also that after assuring Gordhan that he was not a suspect, and then pausing for the local government elections, the matter was suddenly back on the table just after the elections. The timing has an eerie similarity with the events that unfolded between 2003 and 2007, when the timing of another prosecution against a senior politician appeared to be coordinated around a political calendar.

Issued by Alex Mohubetswane Moshilo, National Spokesperson, SACP, 11 October 2016