Another Zuma pal lands him in the poo

PRESIDENT Jacob Zuma’s great weakness is his choice of friends. The Guptas have let him down by behaving like bulls in a China shop, drawing attention to themselves at every possible opportunity. If you’re going to soak yourself in public money at least do it quietly.

It is too late now for the Guptas. But the latest example is the minerals minister, Mosebenzi Zwane, plucked from obscurity by the Guptas for Zuma to appoint to his cabinet last year. Duduzane, Zuma’s son and a business partner of the Guptas, joined Zwane and his dad for the normally private chat the president has in his office with ministers as he appoints them.

Now Zwane has landed Zuma in the poo too.

Soon after South Africa’s big banks requested the Guptas to close their accounts, Zwane made a terrible fuss on the Guptas’ behalf and got Zuma to agree to appoint an interministerial committee to find out why the banks had split with the Guptas. The ministers “appointed” were Zwane, Labour Minister Mildred Oliphant, and Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan.

Gordhan attended none of its meetings. Zwane and Oliphant tried to see the banks but got nowhere. Banks close customer accounts all the time for suspicious behaviour but by law they are not allowed to say why. The Gupta accounts, being quite fat, would have had an account executive monitoring them at each bank and that person would have raised problems with the family. Obviously, they choose not to reveal what communications took place because the facts might embarrass them.

On Thursday evening, however, Zwane released a statement saying his committee had reported to a cabinet meeting on Wednesday and that the cabinet had resolved to request that Zuma consider “establishing a Judicial Enquiry in terms of section 84(2)(f) of the Constitution and to . . . consider the current mandates of the Banking Tribunal and the banking ombudsman presented to the IMC indicated that all of the actions taken by the banks and financial institutions were as a result of innuendo and potentially reckless media statements, and as a South African company, Oakbay [the Gupta holding company] had very little recourse to the law.

“[And] to reconsider South Africa’s clearing bank provisions to allow for new banking licences to be issued and in so doing (sic), to create a free market economy.”

It is hard to imagine anything better guaranteed to generate a banking crisis than that utterly stupid and reckless statement.

Zuma is in China, along with Gordhan, for this weekend’s G20 meeting. The Chinese will want to know why, twice in the space of nine months, their major stake in Standard Bank has been hammered by politicking in Zuma’s government. The Chinese state owns more than 20% of Standard Bank and its share price has fallen from more than R150 to about R130 since rumours of Gordhan’s arrest began circulating.

The Chinese are meticulous about corruption and they have been horrified at the way their investment in South Africa has been treated by the government.

So we waited on Friday for the routine statement that follows every cabinet meeting. When it landed there was no mention of Zwane’s “resolution”. A new SAA board was announced. Hair at Pretoria High School for Girls was there. Even something about the first co-operative financial institution for rural women. But nothing about Zwane’s statement.

At some stage someone would have to repudiate him. The statement could not be allowed to survive.

And then it came. As Zwane was insisting it was a cabinet decision on the SABC the Presidency put out a statement of its own: “Minister Zwane is a member of the task team. He does not speak on behalf of Cabinet and the contents of his statement do not reflect the position or views of Cabinet, the Presidency or Government,” it said.

Zwane was so blatantly trying to do the Guptas’ bidding here it is embarrassing. He will humiliate Zuma again, guaranteed.

Perhaps it no longer matters. Zuma’s grip on his succession at the ANC elective conference in December 2017 is slipping and with fools like Zwane watching his back it is no surprise. Branches around the country, their ranks swelled by hundreds of former municipal councillors who lost their only jobs last month, are angry and they blame Zuma for the party’s plight. And they’re right.

And they will decide the succession.