DA takes cheap shot at Gigaba with Twitter meme
The Democratic Alliance has taken a cheap shot at new minister of finance, Malusi Gigaba, calling him ‘Des van Rooyen in a designer suit’.
Van Rooyen was the ill-fated minister appointed to head up the finance department following the sudden axing of Nhlanhla Nene at the end of 2015 by president Jacob Zuma.
The move sparked a collapse in South Africa’s markets, forcing the president to recall van Rooyen after only four days in office.
DA shadow minister of finance, David Maynier, said in a statement on Tuesday (4 April), that the appointment of Gigaba has been a disaster for the economy of South Africa.
At around midnight on 30 March 2017, the president announced a reshuffle of his Cabinet, which included the sacking of finance minister Pravin Gordhan and his deputy, Mcebisi Jonas.
Gordhan was replaced by Gigaba, who previously served as minister of home affairs and minister of public enterprises, and who has very little background in finance and economics, holding a BA degree in education and a Master’s in social policy.
“The minister’s first one hundred hours, in what he called the “hot seat”, has been a monumental shambles – the rand tanked, ten-year bond yields spiked and the country was downgraded to “junk status” by Standard & Poors,” said Maynier.
The shadow minister continued: “This should not come as a surprise considering the minister’s weekend press conference, which was called to “restore confidence and restore calm”, but then proceeded to do exactly the opposite.”
Among other things, Maynier argued that pledging “radical economic transformation”; and institutional changes at National Treasury, was unlikely to have generated any confidence in the market.
Maynier continued that it got worse when the minister could not explain what “radical economic transformation” meant and was forced to concede there was still “a whole lot of clarification that we have to do.”
He said that the minister further compounded the problem at today’s press conference, which was called to do damage control following the downgrade to “junk status”, when he suggested that he was “committed to inclusive growth”, but had not abandoned “radical economic transformation”.
“The minister’s damage control exercise was an own goal because it will give oxygen to the narrative that there is policy uncertainty and it will not go down well with the ratings agencies, which are concerned about possible “policy shifts” following the midnight cabinet reshuffle.
“The fact is that the minister is just not up to the job and there is now a strong impression that: Malusi Gigaba is just Des Van Rooyen in a designer suit,” the shadow minister said.
The DA posted the following image on Twitter:
Read: What financial experts say about South Africa being junked
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