Julius Malema during a media briefing July 05, 2018 in Johannesburg, South Africa (Photo by Gallo Images / Netwerk24 / Felix Dlangamandla). Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan at Zondo’s commission of inquiry into state capture on November 12, 2018 in Johannesburg, South Africa. (Photo by Gallo Images / Netwerk24 / Felix Dlangamandla) On Sunday, EFF President Julius Malema announced that the party will protest at the Zondo Commission of Inquiry, capping a sustained campaign by the party against Gordhan’s testimony, which was leaked two weeks ago. The party wants Gordhan to resign on the same basis that it helped campaign for a resignation by former Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene who was found to have lied about how many times he met the family at the core of South Africa’s story of State Capture.
Gordhan’s leaked affidavit starts the section on the Gupta family by stating:
“I have never been to the Gupta family compound located in Saxonwold. I was invited to the famous Gupta family wedding at Sun City, but declined the invitation.”
In his testimony, Gordhan says:
“I had forgotten of another instance where one of the Gupta brothers may have been present at a meeting I had with billionaire businessman Anil Ambani of the Reliance group of companies in or about June 2010.”
Gordhan agreed to meet Ambani because he was a potential investor and his then chief-of-staff Dondo Mogajane had reminded him that Rajesh “Tony” Gupta had turned up at the meeting with Ambani.
In his testimony, Gordhan says the Guptas regularly wanted to meet him but that he “refused to schedule a meeting with the Gupta family, whether at their residence or anywhere else”.
But the EFF says that Gordhan is lying because in a reply to a parliamentary question he had said he had never met the family. Gordhan also says in his testimony that he was once introduced to another Gupta brother, Ajay Gupta, when he ran into him at the presidential guest house, Mahlamba Ndlopfu, when he arrived for a meeting with Zuma.
Other than that, he says that he only saw one of the three Gupta brothers at a cricket match and that they had often been at government functions as guests of the president which were attended by Cabinet ministers.
The EFF has increased pressure on Gordhan ahead of his appearance before the Zondo commission of inquiry. The party has alleged on public platforms that he is running a parallel state and that he is part of an Indian cabal taking out black executives such as former SARS commissioner Tom Moyane and former CEO of Transnet Siyabonga Gama.
Gordhan was the least liked of all Cabinet members by the Gupta family who cultivated close relationships with many of Zuma’s ministers. The family’s network of automated social media bots targeted Gordhan for months at the height of State Capture between 2015 and 2017.
The family also ran a campaign against Gordhan in its New Age newspaper and on its then ANN7 television station because they believed that Gordhan did not protect them from the banks which closed their accounts and because he continually rebuffed their affections.
The family’s South African CEO of their Oakbay Holdings, Nazeem Howa, upped the ante with a political campaign to force Gordhan to force the banks to reinstate their banking facilities. He refused and went to court to get a declaratory order saying that he could not intervene in client-banker relationships.
The closure of the family’s accounts and their loss of their listing sponsorship of Oakbay on the JSE was the beginning of the end of their business life in South Africa.
The EFF enters the picture because it has gone into bat for Gama and Moyane, whom they allege were fired because of Gordhan. Moyane was axed by President Cyril Ramaphosa on the recommendation of Judge Robert Nugent who is heading an inquiry into SARS. Gama was dismissed by the Transnet board which is chaired by Popo Molefe; Transnet falls under the Department of Public Enterprises.
Tension between Malema and Gordhan goes back even further. In his first term as finance minister, Gordhan was instrumental in putting the Limpopo treasury into national administration because it was looted, partly by networks of patronage businesses linked to Malema, who was then head of the ANC Youth League.
Gordhan has faced the most targeted attack by online trolling armies in the month ahead of his testimony which reveals how high the stakes are this week. The trolls have raised the race narrative of an “Indian cabal” in charge of the state.
By this weekend, Gordhan’s spokesman Adrian Lackay had been drawn into the campaign when his emails from his time as spokesperson at SARS were hacked and leaked to resurrect the controversy over the alleged “rogue unit” at SARS.
While the Sunday Times has rescinded its series of over 30 articles on the alleged “rogue unit” as untrue and returned all prizes and prize money awarded for this and two other investigations, the EFF is resurrecting the idea of such a unit in various communications.
On Friday, a little-known craft union called the Academic and Professional Staff Association said that the Zondo commission of inquiry’s evidence leader Paul Pretorius should recuse himself from the commission because he had allegedly provided pro bono services to Lackay when he was axed by SARS. DM