Pravin Gordhan is presiding over State Capture 2.0 by refusing to disclose details of the SAA transaction with the Takatso Consortium

17 December 2023

The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) has noted the arrogant response given by the minister of Public Enterprises Pravin Gordhan, and his obstinate refusal to hand over crucial information, on the sale of SAA, to Members of Parliament. The Public Enterprises Parliamentary Portfolio Committee has unanimously agreed that it cannot provide unqualified support for the transaction for SAA to be sold to the Takatso Consortium. Furthermore, NUMSA has noted that the committee has decided to subpoena minister Gordhan for his refusal to cooperate with the committee in its investigation into the deal involving the Takatso consortium.

The Parliamentary committee met on Wednesday to consider the evidence and the allegations of corruption which the former Director-General of SAA, Kgathatso Tlhakudi submitted to parliament. Gordhan’s refused to provide the committee with two crucial documents, has meant that it is unable to finalise its investigation into allegations of irregularities. The documents which are outstanding are the shortlisted entities after the final determination was made, and the sale and purchase agreement.

NUMSA is vindicated because Gordhan has proven that we were right about him all along. Gordhan is presiding over State Capture 2.0 through the sale of SAA. The airline was sold for R51 in a process that remains shrouded in secrecy, even though, this is a state owned entity, which means that as the public, we have every right to demand and receive detailed information on this deal.

NUMSA wishes to remind the public that we are on record saying that the SAA deal is dodgy, and that the level of secrecy surrounding the transaction means that it, ‘stinks of corruption’. NUMSA General secretary Irvin Jim says,

“There are numerous reasons why Gordhan must be fired. In his tenure as minister of SOE’s he has collapsed every single one of them. His disastrous track record, coupled with the dodgy SAA deal means that his dismissal is way overdue. But it seems the governing party is too cowardly to act against a minister as grossly incompetent as Gordhan, and one wonders why?  He does as he pleases and there are no consequences.”

NUMSA repeats the demand for Pravin Gordhan to be removed because he continues to show the middle finger to any recognized institution that attempts to hold him to account.

The media is also very soft on him. The destruction he has wreaked in terms of job losses, is far worse than what former President Jacob Zuma was accused of, and yet, we have to ask ourselves, where is the avalanche of screaming headlines and expert opinion pieces, calling for Gordhan’s immediate dismissal?

The media chose to make its position clear on Zuma and they were very noisy about demanding Zuma’s removal but they are silent on Gordhan, why?  It is worse because his failures have resulted in thousands of jobs lost through his mismanagement of Eskom. He has made disastrous choices to hand over the country’s energy provision to the private sector, through costly Renewable energy Independent Power Producers, which have shown that they are unreliable and are incapable of providing us with uninterrupted baseload energy.

Gordhan implemented a failed Just energy Transition at Komati power station, which has caused immense suffering to the working class, because of the premature closure of the power station. The jobs which were promised never materialized, and because of him, we shut down a power station, at a time when we are experiencing shocking levels of loadshedding. This has caused many factories and SMME’s to shut down prematurely, thus adding to job losses.

If you add the mismanagement of SA Express, SAA, and Denel, we are talking about a mega mismanagement of strategic entities which play a direct role in our economic development. We have to ask, do media houses only act with courage when dealing with Zuma? It seems when it comes to the current administration under Ramaphosa, they are not as passionate in their demand for accountability. Karl Marx reminds us that media houses can never be neutral.

They always side with the agenda of the ruling classes and when it comes to Gordhan, and the Ramaphosa presidency, some of them are as meek as lambs.  Mass media forms the arena in which various ideological battles are fought, but the class that controls capital is always dominant.

Minister Gordhan engineered the sale of the airline to friends and former senior leaders of the governing party. Jabu Moleketi is the former Deputy Minister of Finance and also, the former MEC of Finance in Gauteng. He also served in the ANC NEC, and he just happens to be director of Harith General Partners, which owns a majority shareholding in the Takatso consortium. NUMSA has been consistent about characterizing this deal as corrupt, and we have been proven right.

The crisis at Transnet is caused by Gordhan. He has a terrible reputation for interfering with boards and for taking operational decisions. He has no respect for the principles of good governance. NUMSA has been saying for years that our weakest link as a country, is Pravin Gordhan. His failure as minister is costing us dearly. Our economic growth is stagnating, because he has a rare talent for killing everything that he lays his hands on.

Need we remind the public that we have put our faith in the hands of pharmacist who has consistently shown that he has zero business acumen? As long as he continues to run the DPE we can expect even more rampant mismanagement, and more failures. We can continue to expect our SOE’s to collapse and this is why urgent action must be taken to remove him.

Issued by Irvin Jim, NUMSA General Secretary, 18 December 2023