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Sacked Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan is not going anywhere any time soon nor is he shy to publicly criticise the government he served until last week, including the ANC whose membership he still holds.
Some of his colleagues who were fired alongside him from President Jacob Zuma’s executive have resigned from Parliament, but Gordhan is staying put. Very few ministers stay on as ordinary MPs after being sacked from the national executive. In most cases they resign to cash in on the hefty ministerial pensions and other benefits which are substantially higher compared to those of an ordinary backbencher.
“I will rest a bit, then see you on the 18th of April,” he told journalists at the St George’s Cathedral yesterday after delivering a fiery speech at Ahmed Kathrada’s memorial service at the iconic church in Cape Town.
April 18 has been set down for the eighth motion of no confidence debate against Zuma. It will be a special sitting convened by National Assembly Speaker Baleka Mbete specifically for the debate because Parliament is in recess until May.
It all began 11 days ago when Zuma recalled Gordhan and his then deputy Mcebisi Jonas from an investor roadshow in Britain and the United States without giving any reason for their recall. He fired them four days later in a midnight reshuffle that affected 25 other people.
But Gordhan is now embarking on a different kind of a roadshow – a political roadshow.
While addressing “mourners” at a series of memorial services for the fallen anti-apartheid and much-loved Kathrada speakers from civil society set the tone, criticising the ANC and the ANC for the country’s problems, from the rape scourge to corruption and the much opposed nuclear deal. Even Jeremy Cronin, who was speaking on behalf of the South African Communist Party, an ANC ally, did not hold back and repeated the call for Zuma to step down.
Gordhan, the keynote speaker began his address with a shout of “Viva ANC Viva”, adding “That’s Mandela’s ANC! Sisulu’s ANC and Kathrada’s ANC!”
Gordhan who learnt of his dismissal as the powerful finance minister on television news last Friday, spoke of “dark clouds that seem to be gathering on the horizon”.
“As these clouds gather, we turn to figures like Comrade Kathy [Kathrada] and ask ‘how do we understand these clouds, what do they bring to us?’
“What do we as South African citizens and activists do about the fact that we find ourselves in these circumstances?”
Gordhan, who was charged with fraud in October – charges that were later withdrawn by the National Prosecuting Authority – also called on South Africans to focus on the abuse of state institutions for wrong purposes, saying Kathrada would have wanted that.
“Instead of chasing criminals, you have many agencies chasing up and trying to criminalise honest people,” said Gordhan.
“In fact we are running the risk in South Africa that honest people don’t want to participate in government institutions any longer, nor will they soon want to participate in representative organs like parliament or municipal councils any longer.
“When the society reaches that point, then you know that we have handed the state over to a bunch of gangsters,” he warned.
Gordhan also called on South Africans to make sure democratic institutions act as the necessary checks and balances, adding that although sometimes the separation of powers are a little blurred, they have acted as a very important check and balance in our society.
“It’s because of the courts that 17 million people received their grants in the past week,” he said.
The Constitutional Court averted a grant payment crisis last month when it allowed Cash Paymaster Services to continue distributing social welfare grants despite its illegal contract coming to an end at the end of March. The state had failed to appoint a new distributor despite being given three years to do so by the same Constitutional court.
Gordhan, who had the multi-racial, multi-class audience which packed the church inside and outside, with others following the proceedings through speakers from the popular St George’s Mall eating out of his hand – warned against a tendency of politicians mobilising on the basis of ethnicity and chauvinism.
“That temptation seems to be at the doorstep in South Africa for some. And that is a tendency we must fight with great vigour as Mr Kathrada would do,” he added.
About the economic downgrade that followed his departure from office, Gordhan said it would not have happened “if we had behaved ourselves, but that’s a different matter”.
Cronin, before him, said it was unacceptable that the ANC’s national working committee accepted that an irretrievable breakdown of the relationship between Zuma and Gordhan was a good enough reason for Gordhan’s axing.
“But surely it’s not good enough if you are not told why there was an irretrievable breakdown in the relationship,” he said to loud cheers from the crowd.
“If there was a breakdown, it’s because Pravin Gordhan refused to rubber stamp unaffordable nuclear deal; it’s because he refused to intervene with the banks on behalf of the Gupta family; it’s because Gordhan stood his ground against the National Prosecuting Authority and the Hawks on the issue of the so-called rogue unit in [the South African Revenue Service], and he refused to turn a blind eye on what was happening on the boards of SAA, Eskom, Denel and others,” said Cronin.
“If these were the reasons for the so called irretrievable breakdown, that is absolutely not acceptable for the ANC national working committee to accept president Zuma’s reasons for firing Gordhan,” he added.
Cronin also warned that if, in a constitutional democracy, elected leaderships are bypassed in critical decisions whose content and timing are seemingly determined outside of the party, outside of Parliament, outside of the integrity commission or the top six of the ANC, that then spells trouble.
On behalf of the SACP, he called for the immediate implementation of the Public Protector’s report on state capture and that an independent judicial inquiry investigate the financial links and dealings between all public entities and the Gupta family.
The SACP also wants the state to revoke the Guptas’ citizenship and residential rights; lifestyle audits for all ministers and deputy ministers and bosses of state owned corporations, that the government deals decisively with underperformance and for Zuma to step down.
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