{"id":167193,"date":"2017-03-30T08:06:59","date_gmt":"2017-03-30T06:06:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=167193"},"modified":"2017-03-30T08:07:34","modified_gmt":"2017-03-30T06:07:34","slug":"zumas-plan-to-fire-gordhan-and-replace-him-with-molefe-revealed-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/167193\/zumas-plan-to-fire-gordhan-and-replace-him-with-molefe-revealed-report\/","title":{"rendered":"Zuma&#8217;s plan to fire Gordhan and replace him with Molefe revealed: report"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>SACP deputy secretary general Solly\u00a0Mapaila has confirmed reports that president Jacob Zuma approached the party with his plan to fire and replace finance minister Pravin Gordhan, using a so-called &#8220;intelligence report&#8221; as the basis.<\/p>\n<p>According to a <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.timeslive.co.za\/thetimes\/2017\/03\/30\/Zumas-plan-revealed-SACP-three-of-ANC%E2%80%99s-top-six-reject-No-1%E2%80%99s-scheme-to-replace-Gordhan-with-Molefe\">report by the Times<\/a><\/strong>, Mapail said that Zuma wanted to reshuffle both Gordhan and his deputy Mcebisi Jonas out of National Treasury and replace the former with Brian Molefe.<\/p>\n<p>Zuma reportedly told the SACP leaders that Gordhan and Jonas may be acting against the interests of the country &#8211; a statement that has been widely reported to be sourced from an apparent &#8220;intelligence report&#8221;, which claims Gordhan has been conspiring with foreign powers against the state.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking to Times Media, Mapaila said that he wanted to put it on record that the SACP stood opposed to Zuma&#8217;s plan and that he was not breaking confidentiality, because the information had already been leaked to the media.<\/p>\n<p>He expressed full confidence in Gordhan and Jonas and said the SACP leaders told Zuma to give them the benefit of the doubt, instead of believing a &#8220;rogue intelligence&#8221; report.<\/p>\n<p>According to other reports, Zuma also met with the ANC top 6 over the same matter, to inform them of his intent to fire Gordhan and replace him with Molefe.<\/p>\n<p>However, ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe denied talk of a reshuffle, saying that, while all six were at Luthuli House on Tuesday when Gordhan arrived back in the country, there was no discussion around a reshuffle.<\/p>\n<p>Insiders countered this account, though, revealing that the discussion took place, and that the ANC top 6 were split. The SACP&#8217;s confirmation adds credence to the insider leaks.<\/p>\n<p>According to the Times report, those who are against Zuma&#8217;s plan &#8211; deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa, Mantashe and treasurer general Zweli Mkhize &#8211; questioned why the focus was only on Gordhan, and not on under-performing ministers, such as Bathabile Dlamini and Faith Muthambi.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Read:\u00a0<a title=\"ANC top 6 split on firing Gordhan: report\" href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/167167\/anc-top-6-split-on-firing-gordhan-report\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">ANC top 6 split on firing Gordhan: report<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SACP deputy secretary general Solly Mapaila has confirmed reports that president Jacob Zuma approached the party with his plan to fire and replace finance minister Pravin Gordhan, using a so-called &#8220;intelligence report&#8221; as the basis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":6315,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-167193","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\/167193","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=167193"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167193\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":167195,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167193\/revisions\/167195"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=167193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=167193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=167193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}