Subtle slapdown for DD

The Russian Patient who also moonlights as a deputy president took a jab at the colourful finance minister on Tuesday. Responding to questions in the National Assembly on Tito Mboweni’s idea of selling those cashbleeding SOEs, David Mabuza said he did not take Kigali’s long-lost son seriously. “I don’t think that’s the way we should approach this debate, whether there are certain entities that must be privatised, certain SOEs. This debate cannot be approached this way and I don’t really take the minister of finance serious when he’s making comments,” Mabuza told gasping MPs. Tito was clearly not impressed. During a Q&A session of the economics cluster, Mboweni indirectly, and wittily, hit back at the Cat.

“In the normal course of life, you assess your situation as you go along. Now dogma, backwardness, overenthusiasm and so on are not helpful,” quipped Reserve Bank governor No 8. What Tito meant, Comrade DD, is that independence of thought is allowed.