{"id":166713,"date":"2017-03-28T15:42:15","date_gmt":"2017-03-28T13:42:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=166713"},"modified":"2017-03-28T15:50:38","modified_gmt":"2017-03-28T13:50:38","slug":"pravin-gordhan-is-still-minister-of-finance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/166713\/pravin-gordhan-is-still-minister-of-finance\/","title":{"rendered":"Pravin Gordhan is still minister of finance"},"content":{"rendered":"

Finance minister Pravin Gordhan has told media that he is still finance minister, following speculation and rumours flying around on social media that he has been fired, or tendered his resignation.<\/p>\n

Arriving at court on Tuesday, Gordhan was asked by EWN journalist\u00a0Barry Bateman if he was still the finance minister, and he responded with a short, but simple “yes”.<\/p>\n

Earlier on Tuesday,\u00a0Bloomberg<\/a>, citing three people with knowledge of the matter, said that Zuma told senior leaders of the South African Communist Party (SACP) of his intention to boot Gordhan.<\/p>\n

This was followed by reports from Gupta-owned media group, Ann7, saying that the president had informed the rest of the ANC’s Top Six of his decision to axe the minister, and got their approval.<\/p>\n

Rumours have been circulating for some time among analysts that a cabinet reshuffle is on the cards, with Gordhan and his deputy, Mcebisi Jonas being specific targets for removal.<\/p>\n

Speculation and fear kicked up on Monday, when the\u00a0president cancelled an international investor roadshow, and ordered Gordhan and Jonas back to the country \u201curgently\u201d.<\/p>\n

Upon landing back in the country, Gordhan immediately went to Luthuli House to meet with ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe. Soon after, rumours started circulating that the minister had resigned.<\/p>\n

Gordhan has faced an immense amount of pressure since being placed in the role of finance minister after Zuma’s ill-thought-out move to fire Nhlanhla Nene in December 2015.<\/p>\n

He has faced trumped up fraud charges (which were ultimately dismissed) and opposition and often violent commentary from Zuma supporters.<\/p>\n

Analysts have widely understood that Gordhan represents an ‘anti-Zuma’ faction within the ANC, that stands opposed to the system of patronage built up by Zuma during his presidency.<\/p>\n

Gordhan, in the role of finance minister, is allegedly seen as a barrier to many lucrative contracts and deals, which were necessary for Zuma and his supporters to continue making money from the state.<\/p>\n

This includes access to finances for the R1 trillion nuclear deal, as well as multi-billion rand bailouts for state-owned companies headed by many of Zuma’s personal friends.<\/p>\n

Gordhan is\u00a0also a significant opponent to state capture, and the Gupta family’s proximity to the president and state contracts, and had on many occasions openly opposed them – most notably\u00a0in a court battle seeking to absolve National Treasury from intervening in the family’s business affairs.<\/p>\n

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Read:\u00a0Zuma set to sack Gordhan as rand continues to fall: report<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Finance minister Pravin Gordhan has told media that he is still finance minister, following speculation and rumours flying around on social media that he has been fired, or tendered his resignation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":114050,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-166713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166713","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=166713"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166713\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":166767,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166713\/revisions\/166767"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/114050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=166713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=166713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=166713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}