NPA ‘evaluating’ Gordhan evidence
Prosecutors studying docket handed to them by Hawks last week
THE NATIONAL Prosecuting Authority (NPA) has not said when it intends to charge Minister of Finance Pravin Gordhan. NPA spokesman Luvuyo Mfaku said yesterday the prosecutors were still studying the docket they had received from the Hawks on Friday.
However, no decision has been taken on the docket.
He said there was no prescribed period by when the NPA would have to formally charge Gordhan.
He said prosecutors were studying the docket to establish the evidence.
The NPA would also not commit to the date for the formal charges against any person, he added.
Gordhan and former senior officials at the SA Revenue Service (Sars), Johan van Loggerenberg and Ivan Pillay, are facing possible charges over a rogue unit, which was allegedly set up at Sars when Gordhan was commissioner in 2007.
He spent 10 years at the agency until he was appointed to cabinet in 2009.
He was removed from the Treasury after the 2014 national and provincial elections, but returned last December following the appointment of Des van Rooyen to the post of Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs .
Van Rooyen’s appointment as minister of finance after replacing Nhlanhla Nene wiped R500billion from the economy.
The Public Investment Corporation, which is under the Treasury and has assets worth R1.4trillion, lost almost R100bn during that period.
But the handing over of the Sars docket by the Hawks to the NPA was an indication Gordhan could be charged any time.
The NPA has refused to say when this will take place, except that the prosecutors were studying the docket to evaluate and analyse the evidence.
A decision will be taken after this process has been undertaken.
Gordhan has received backing from jurists, academics, some sections of the ANC and civil society in general.
They believe he is being unfairly persecuted for fighting corruption.
In his statement last week he called on the Hawks to let him do his job.
But some have questioned the timing of the Hawks to re-launch their attack on Gordhan.
Gordhan has insisted that he has not done anything wrong, and was under no obligation to hand himself over to the Hawks last Thursday.
This followed interactions between his lawyers and Hawks boss Lieutenant-General Berning Ntlemeza.
One of President Jacob Zuma’s most vocal supporters, the ANC Youth League, however, has called on Gordhan to subject himself to the law.