Gordhan adds to Zondo’s woes
At the beginning of the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture, it looked like the wheels would come right off for Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo. This after former ANC MP Vytjie Mentor testified of meetings which were proved to never have happened, meetings with the Gupta brothers at their compound where her descriptions of the buildings did not even come close to the actual buildings.
It was nothing short of embarrassing for Mentor but, most importantly, it was more than a wobbly start for Zondo’s task of putting meat to the bones of the alleged “wasted nine years”.
But Mentor was soon forgotten when credible witnesses came through to testify of not only their roles in state capture, but the roles of other senior government officials, going all the way up to former president Jacob Zuma.
When Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan appeared before the commission for cross-examination by former SA Revenue Service (Sars) commissioner Tom Moyane this past week, no one expected him and Moyane’s lawyer, Dali Mpofu, to produce the same contradictions that can easily earn Mentor the tag of the most unreliable person to have appeared before Zondo.
And they didn’t. But they did produce several exchanges that did not leave either of them with a reputation far removed from that of Mentor as a witness.
Mpofu seemed hell-bent on proving that Gordhan was everything that the Zuma faction and the Economic Freedom Fighters have always alleged or intimated he was: a racist, arrogant and conceited man.
Gordhan at times played into Mpofu’s trap by doing his utmost to evade questions and providing Mpofu with openings that painted Gordhan as a racist. Unfortunately for Mpofu, the aim of the commission has never been to establish whether Gordhan is racist or not.
On the other hand, the media and civil society did project Gordhan as the poster boy against state capture, but does Mpofu wrestling with Gordhan in the mud and maybe leaving him there provide sufficient proof that Moyane was not instrumental in state capture efforts?
Does a recorded telephone conversation between Moyane and Gordhan in which the latter chides Moyane not to be cheeky (in the same manner a racist would) absolve Moyane of his alleged role in the capturing of Sars to aid in the looting of state funds by Gupta-owned companies?
It is the same sort of thing that former Bosasa boss Angelo Agrizzi is accused of by those seeking to discredit his evidence, a racist hell-bent on taking down those he didn’t like in the ruling party.
It might very well be that Gordhan is arrogant and racist, uncouth and conceited, but does proving that mean that the actions of Moyane during the Zuma presidency and, particularly, at Sars count for less because the allegations are made by Gordhan?
Like Mentor, Zondo will have to deal with Gordhan’s credibility as a witness, especially during his evasive spell while being cross-examined by Mpofu.
Gordhan’s shortcomings do not make state capture or the “wasted nine years” less real, they just make everything even murkier.