Gordhan police probe: Zuma urged to intervene South African President Jacob Zuma must intervene in the police investigation of Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan because its heightening chances that the nation''s credit rating will be downgraded to junk, said the Johannesburg chairman of the ruling party, Parks Tau.“The issues around the finance minister require urgent intervention because the single most important task right now is to ensure that all of us as South Africans protect the economy of this country,” Tau, the 46-year-old former mayor of the country''s financial hub, said on Wednesday in an interview in Bloomberg''s Johannesburg office.
“Right now we are creating uncertainty and that uncertainty is not helping our ability to cohere around protecting the economy of this country.”
While Tau didn''t say Zuma should simply order an end to the police investigation, he suggested the inquiry which became public in February should be accelerated. A special police unit known as the Hawks is probing the finance minister over an allegedly illicit surveillance unit set up when he led the national tax agency. Gordhan, in an interview with Bloomberg TV in New York on Tuesday, called the probe “a bit of political mischief”.
The presidency and the Treasury have had a tense relationship since Zuma fired the respected Nhlanhla Nene as finance minister in December and replaced him with a little-known lawmaker. After investors sold the nation''s rand and bonds and business and ruling party leaders lobbied the president to change course, he reinstated Gordhan four days later to the post of finance chief, which he had held from 2009 to 2014.
Since then, Zuma has rebuffed Gordhan''s request to fire the nation''s tax chief for insubordination and delayed his attempts to install a new board at the loss-making state airline.
BLOOMBERG