{"id":123677,"date":"2016-05-16T08:43:56","date_gmt":"2016-05-16T06:43:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=123677"},"modified":"2016-05-16T08:43:56","modified_gmt":"2016-05-16T06:43:56","slug":"gordhan-arrest-off-the-cards-for-now-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/123677\/gordhan-arrest-off-the-cards-for-now-report\/","title":{"rendered":"Gordhan arrest off the cards – for now: report"},"content":{"rendered":"

The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) has sent the docket investigating finance minister Pravin Gordhan back to the Hawks, ‘with guidance<\/a>‘, according to Times Live.<\/p>\n

The NPA was responding to Sunday Reports that the minister was facing “imminent” arrest, with the Hawks and prosecutors awaiting political “go-ahead” to make the move.<\/p>\n

According to the NPA, while it had received a docket on the finance minister, it had not made a decision on the matter – thus saying an arrest was imminent, or that anyone was facing arrest, was incorrect.<\/p>\n

The Presidency on Sunday said that the story was fabricated\u00a0and is “the work of dangerous information peddlers who wish to cause confusion and mayhem in the country”.<\/p>\n

The Hawks declined to comment on the matter, while Gordhan said he was considering releasing a statement.<\/p>\n

The Sunday Times, citing senior officials in the Hawks and the NPA, reported\u00a0that Gordhan was\u00a0facing imminent arrest\u00a0on charges of espionage, relating to the so-called “rogue spy unit” at SARS, which was set up under his watch as commissioner.<\/p>\n

The Hawks have long been gunning for the minister, even before he was repositioned as head of the finance department in December 2015.<\/p>\n

The investigative unit was criticised for taking on the minister during his budget speech in February – a sensitive time for the country, following president Jacob Zuma’s sacking of Nhlanhla Nene in December 2015, which send the economy into a tailspin.<\/p>\n

The investigation into the ‘spy unit’ – and by association, Gordhan – was brought by current SARS commissioner, Tom Monyane, who has a tense relationship with Gordhan,<\/p>\n

Gordhan has also been trying to get Monyane removed as SARS commissioner, but has been blocked from doing by Zuma.<\/p>\n

More on Gordhan<\/h3>\n

Gordhan arrest \u201cimminent\u201d: report<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Gordhan responds to Hawks questions<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Rand tanks amid Gordhan job fears<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Gordhan responds to Hawks \u2018threats\u2019<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) has sent the docket investigating finance minister Pravin Gordhan back to the Hawks, ‘with guidance’, according to Times Live.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":32478,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872,23],"tags":[11182,26],"class_list":["post-123677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-government","tag-gordhan","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123677","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=123677"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123677\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":123683,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123677\/revisions\/123683"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}