Gordhan urges public to act
including secretary-general Mantashe, who yesterday described the changes as having left him “very uncomfortable”.
The Cabinet reshuffle follows a national executive committee meeting last weekend, at which only the Police Minister Nathi Nhleko received much criticism “for being invisible”.
An ANC leader who is a member of the NEC said: “The point comrades were trying to make was that the minister of police is not visible at all.
“The person we see at hotspots of taxi violence is the president. He is nowhere to be found. The president said he has taken the NEC’s concerns and would act on it. But surprisingly, the same minister has since been moved to another department”.
Speaking on Radio 702 yesterday morning Mantashe said they (as ANC officials) were given a list that was already a fait accompli.
“And my own view as the secretarygeneral, I felt like this list has been developed somewhere else and its given to us to legitimise it.
“I’m very uncomfortable because areas where ministers who do not perform have not been touched,” said Mantashe. A day after the NEC meeting, Zuma summoned the top officials to a meeting where he informed them about the intelligence report and the plan to fire Gordhan and Jonas.
The Dispatch reported on Monday that Ramaphosa, Mantashe and treasurer-general Zweli Mkize objected to the plan to fire Gordhan.
Two days after Gordhan’s return from his international trip, Zuma summoned to top officials to yet another meeting on Thursday afternoon.
This is the meeting Ramaphosa described as “just a process of informing us of his decision. It was not a consultative issue because he came with a ready-made list and I raised my concern and objection on the removal of the minister of finance.
“So this is where we are. He has made his choice. Let me say it’s the prerogative to appoint and dismiss ministers of his Cabinet. It is his choice and he has exercised his choice,” Ramaphosa added.
Asked whether he would resign now that his views were ignored, Ramaphosa said: “No I will not [resign]. I am still to serve our people in government. I have made my views known and there are quite a number of other colleagues and comrades who are unhappy about this situation, particularly the removal of the minister of finance who was serving the country with absolute distinction.
“He has proven that he is a talented person but for him to be removed for this type of reasoning is to me unacceptable,” added Ramaphosa.
Gordhan has called on ordinary South Africans to “mobilise” – a comment widely seen as a call for citizens to rise against Zuma. — TMG FORMER finance minister Pravin Gordhan yesterday called on civil society to be organised, to make their voices heard.
He was responding to a question from the media on South Africa’s future, after and he and his deputy, Mcebisi Jonas, were fired following what Gordhan described as a “nonsensical” intelligence report that accused the two of planning to mobilise financial markets against the country while on an investor roadshow.
Gordhan had to return home on Monday after President Jacob Zuma ordered him to cut short his official visit to London, only to be axed as finance minister.
Gordhan said South Africa had a rich history of community and mass mobilisation, which managed to correct injustices in the past.
“What should the public do? Organise because fragmented voices don’t have the weight that we require,” he said.
“What I’m saying is ANC policy. It’s an ANC ethic of being accountable to the masses, not on the basis of false narratives, but on the basis of legitimate knowledge and information that empowers them to be agents of change that empowers them to change their own conditions and their own lives. Masses made history not individuals.”
Also addressing the media in Johannesburg yesterday a few hours after being fired as deputy finance minister, Jonas said: “You have in front of you a history unfolding. And at the centre of that history is a democracy and an economy that are being undermined.”
Jonas publicly accused the Gupta family of approaching him and offerring him former finance minister Nhlanhla Nene’s job, a few weeks before Nene was axed in 2015.
His statement is in former public protector Thuli Madonsela’s State of Capture report.