Nene’s axing saw 148 000 jobs lost, economy remains bad

NATIONAL Treasury director-general Dondo Mogajane this week told the Zondo Commission of Inquiry into State Capture that the country had not fully recovered from the impact of Nhlanhla Nene’s firing as finance minister in December 2015, which sent the markets into a tailspin with questions on why he was removed.

He was replaced by little-known ANC backbencher Des van Rooyen, who lasted four days before former president Jacob Zuma was forced to bring back Pravin Gordhan as minister of finance to “calm the markets”.

Mogajane said it was unlikely that the JSE recovered from the massive hit it took through market capitalisation: “There was a catastrophic fall of the rand. We saw about 148 000 jobs being lost in terms of the model that we ran, we saw a reduction of about R378 billion in JSE market capitalisation and we also saw an impact of at least 1.1% cost on the gross domestic product by the end of 2017,” said Mogajane.

He said the impact of the depreciated rand and knock on the markets could still be felt.

Mogajane said he had been saddened by Nene’s dismissal as it was unnecessary and cost the country billions of rand in market investments

Evidence leader advocate Vincent Maleka asked about the extent of business the Gupta family did with the government and how much they made.

Former deputy finance minister Mcebisis Jonas testified that the Guptas boasted to him about how they made R6bn out of government contracts, and wanted to increase the rake-in to R8bn. Jonas said he was offered a R600 million bribe and Nene’s position of finance minister in 2015 by the controversial family.