No mercy for Gigaba now that Malema has him in his sights
WHO can believe current Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba has any shred of integrity after EFF leader Julius Malema’s tweets showing how Gigaba, as then home affairs minister, had helped the Guptas gain South African citizenship?
As if the infamous Gupta e-mails were not enough to taint Gigaba around his appointments to certain positions at Transnet, Malema tweets two letters, with one showing Gigaba’s signature waiving the requirements needed for naturalisation of the Guptas.
Because of Gigaba’s moves, the Guptas gained South African citizenship the same as people born here and that will be hard to revoke.
How he did this as home affairs minister and then got entrusted with moving the economy only paints him as someone allegedly to help the Guptas loot.
That is why Malema’s tweets are hard not to believe.
Unlike Helen Zille, who tweets offensive and baseless opinions, Malema tweets evidence that shows us in black and white the handler of our national purse does not have the integrity needed to move the country’s economy forward.
With Gigaba not refuting Malema’s evidence, any sympathies towards Gigaba are evaporating by the day.
Words from Gigaba such as “radical economic transformation” or “inclusive growth” or criticism of the black middle class at a Black Management Forum event seem futile in the wake of mounting evidence against him.
Malema once again has opened Pandora’s box with those tweets, making it easy for people to see the character of the finance minister.
One has got to admire the ability of the EFF commander-inchief to take the most complex of political debates and simplify it for the rank and file to understand.
While debates, articles and opinion pieces will rage on about Gigaba, Malema just tweets.
And his tweets end up capturing the essence of the problem.
Even the most hopeful and the most naive Mzantsi citizens are now struggling to believe that Gigaba has any integrity left to steer the country’s economy.
Any suspicions that Gigaba was a Gupta ally are now confirmed by Juju’s tweets.
Gigaba himself has not denied Malema’s statements but simply tried to avert public consciousness from him to Malema’s character.
According to media reports, Gigaba said he found it strange that people who were once accused of tender fraud could throw stones.
This strategy of trying to taint Malema will simply not work.
Gigaba was referring to the findings that former public protector Thuli Madonsela made on Malema, but the case was struck off the roll.
The minister has himself to blame.
From his personal life to his involvement around the Transnet deal, the minister has nowhere to hide.
Gigaba has been moving in reverse from the word go.
No matter how dignified he tries to sound, almost every time he speaks, he is desperately trying to defend his integrity in some form or another rather than leading the country’s purse forward.
Within a week of being in the hot seat, he was explaining his wife’s eNCA interview.
“Don’t worry, baby, about the rand as it will fall and rise again,” said Mrs Gigabyte with absolute confidence as the nation gasped in shock. The interview set Twitter ablaze. Buhle Mkhize, the minister’s alleged former mistress, didn’t make it any easier for Gigaba with her PowerPoint slide revelations.
The personal integrity of the man currently handling our national purse was in tatters, making us realise that we never had these issues with previous finance ministers.
“If you cannot control something as simple as two women, how can you control the national purse” became the sexist joke.
The country was evidently suffering from the reality of our national Treasury being captured right before our very eyes.
After billions that were lost as a result of the cabinet reshuffle, the firing of Pravin Gordhan and Mcebisi Jonas from the finance portfolio and South Africa losing investor confidence, the interview left intelligent women and men scratching their heads.
Thinking women also realised that they stood no chance of being a minister’s wife.
Standards for first ladies of departments (and the country) have obviously become very low.
But as a country that suffers from battered women syndrome, we tried to give the minister a chance to prove himself.
We watched the minister in his expensive suits – admittedly chosen by his fashionista wife – try to assure us of radical economic transformation.
Expensive suits unfortunately do not remove the stench of tainted character.
To be fair, maybe it’s because people in general are usually sceptical when it comes to their money.
Maybe it’s because South Africans didn’t know former finance minister Gordhan’s wife or maybe Gigaba himself doesn’t seem to be flowing easily in his new post.
Even when he blocked the Guptas from purchasing a bank, the stench of being seen as a Gupta appointment still lurked.
Gigaba’s once youthful swag seemed lost in the finance portfolio.
With Juju’s tweets, it becomes clear that Gigaba has made moves that benefit the Guptas in a material way and will most probably do so in the finance portfolio.
It is still about to get rough for Gigaba. It is well known that when the commander-in-chief of the red brigade enters any fray of politics, sparks are bound to fly.
Right now they are flying in the direction of Gigaba.
Gigaba better be afraid.
He has the fiercest politician, Julius Malema, hot on his heels.
Malema is an enemy no politician would want.
The commander-inchief of the red berets does not throw stones without evidence to back it.
In addition, when Malema starts a fight, he will finish it.
The young leader took Zuma all the way to the Constitutional Court, and turned parliament into a living hell for the president and the speaker. Gigaba can expect the same. Malema is shining a bright light on Gigaba’s character and it’s going to be a bumpy ride for the minister – all in the name of fighting blatant corruption.
With the EFF bent on bringing charges against Gigaba, more is going to be revealed about the minister. And expecting the economy to improve becomes a drifting reality.