ZUMA MAKES HIS MOVE
GORDHAN CALLED BACK FROM UK GUPTA CASE BEFORE COURT TODAY
ON THE eve of a high court battle in which Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan is pitted against Gupta-owned companies, the country was reeling as President Jacob Zuma ordered Gordhan to return home from an overseas trip to lobby the UK and US investors.
Also it emerged yesterday that Zuma has sought to have a say as an interested party in the Pretoria High Court case that is set to come before the court today.
The Presidency said yesterday that Zuma had instructed Gordhan to cancel his international investment promotion roadshow to the UK and the US and return to South Africa immediately. Deputy Finance Minister Mcebisi Jonas was still in the country when Zuma gave the instruction.
The national treasury later confirmed that due to the president’s directive, Gordhan and national treasury director general Lungisa Fuzile were to return last night from the UK, and were expected to arrive in South Africa this morning.
The treasury said that Jonas, who was scheduled to undertake the US leg of the trip, would not leave for it last night.
In the court application brought by Gordhan last year, he had sought a declaratory order from the court stating that he was not allowed to intervene in their disputes with South Africa’s major banks.
The application came after four major South African banks – FNB, Standard Bank, Absa and Nedbank – as well as the Bank of China, had closed the company’s accounts.
The banks supported Gordhan’s application and issues were raised relating to transactions amounting to R6.8 billion in the Guptas’ accounts, which were deemed suspicious.
According to court papers that The Mercury has seen, state attorney Kgosi Lekabe has now filed an affidavit on behalf of Zuma in which the president seeks to raise an issue with the manner in which Standard Bank had sought certain relief against the president and other cabinet ministers, despite them not being joined to the application.
The affidavit states that the relief sought by Standard Bank, which is one of the banks in the application, has a direct impact on the president and other ministers.
“In effect it is an attempt to engage the power of this court to order the president and other members of the cabinet not to exercise their executive powers in a manner that Standard Bank would not want them to exercise those powers,” the affidavit states.
Standard Bank has sought an order widening the scope of the relief sought by Gordhan and declaring that the president and the ministers cannot intervene in any way in any decision taken by the bank to terminate its relationship with Oakbay and other related Gupta companies.
Lekabe says that Zuma had “no desire” to intervene in the proceedings and could not be compelled to do so just because the bank had failed to follow the proper processes. The affidavit also states that Zuma could not be bound to follow a court order if he was not part of the proceedings.
Lekabe says the matter was raised with attorneys acting for Standard Bank in correspondence dating back to December last year.
He says that in the latest correspondence from the attorneys this month, his office had been told that the bank would persist with seeking the court order despite the president not being part of the proceedings.
Lekabe says Zuma had therefore been advised to file the affidavit to register his objection to the process carried out.
The affidavit asks that Standard Bank’s court order not be brought before the court, but that it should be struck from the court roll and that the bank pay the president’s costs.
Meanwhile, Sahara also filed an application yesterday, in which it sought to have Gordhan provide proof and satisfy the court that the state attorney was authorised to act on his behalf.
In their court papers, the company argues that the application could have been avoided if Gordhan had provided such proof.
The company also asks