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Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan has hit back at the criminal charges filed against him and his daughter by the Economic Freedom Fighters' leaders Julius Malema and Floyd Shivambu, calling them “a flagrant abuse of the criminal justice system”.
“Their so-called ‘charge sheet’ is baseless, containing a set of lies, fake news and fabrications,” he said on Tuesday, calling it “their latest attack on the continuing efforts to combat corruption and theft in state-owned companies and other public institutions.”
Malema on Tuesday filed a counter criminal complaint against Gordhan, accusing him of money laundering, corruption, racketeering and fraud.
On Monday, Gordhan filed a defamation complaint against the EFF party leader and his deputy Shivambu after they accused him and his daughter of corruption.
Gordhan denies any wrongdoing by him or his daughter, Anisha.
The case between Gordhan and Malema is likely to sharpen friction between the parties months before a national election, where the smaller EFF is trying to use an anti-corruption platform to challenge key figures in the ruling ANC.
Malema said the EFF had given police evidence on the alleged criminal activities, including details of a bank account in Canada where Gordhan allegedly asked individuals to deposit money.
“I said to the police, I have got a list of people who were told to put the money into the account,” Malema told EFF supporters outside a Pretoria police station.
“When we attack Pravin, we are launching an attack against corruption.”
Gordhan, a former finance minister respected by international investors for standing up to former president Jacob Zuma, has denied having a bank account in Canada.
“It is their democratic right to pursue whatever path they wish to pursue. That it is malicious and unsubstantial there is no doubt, but let’s see how it plays itself out,” Gordhan told reporters in Cape Town when asked about EFF’s complaint.
In a strongly worded statement on Tuesday, Gordhan said that, before the Zondo Commission of Inquiry last week - and under oath - he denied that he had a bank account in Canada and he also explained that his daughter had not derived any financial benefit from government business, nor conducted any business with a state organ.
“Today’s actions by the EFF leadership are the politics of distraction. Corruption is the real enemy in South Africa. What the public should be asking those who launch these attacks are: what are you hiding and why are you so desperate to distract the public?
The content of the ‘charge sheet’ or ‘indictment’ is false, defamatory and malicious and has been disseminated publicly with the specific objective of causing injury to the reputations and integrity of Minister Gordhan and his family.”
He indicated that he and his family were considering pursuing civil actions for damages arising out of these malevolent and defamatory allegations. He wanted the following placed on the record:
• Allegations that Gordhan established an illegal “rogue unit” within the South African Revenue Service are patently false and have been discredited and disavowed in the public domain. Specifically, the interim report by the Nugent Commission of Inquiry into Sars states the following: “I have not yet found why the creation and existence of the unit was said to have been unlawful, which is how it was consistently and uncritically depicted. I find no reason why the establishment and existence of the unit was indeed unlawful, and I am supported in that opinion given to [Sars commissioner Tom] Moyane in late 2015”;
• Gordhan has no bank account outside South Africa – any such allegation is completely false; and
• The allegations regarding his daughter and directorships on company boards, have been dealt with before the Zondo Commission.
Gordhan believed that part of what was going on was “the descent to racism that we are seeing in this country as a cheap political mechanism to launch attacks”.
He said that the EFF’s “disinformation campaign”, the public attacks on him and his family, and the threats and attacks on journalists, the Zondo Commission of Inquiry and anyone fighting or exposing corruption, “are signs of a dangerous descent towards populism, political intolerance, racism and an assault on our democracy”.
– Additional reporting by Reuters
