SA Minister of Finance off the Legal Hook and Politically Stronger

SOUTH AFRICA - In Brief 31 Oct 2016 by Iraj Abedian
The Director of National Prosecuting Agency (NPA), Mr Shaun Abrahams, had to reverse his decision of earlier this month, on October 11th, to charge Minister Pravin Gordhan for fraud and corruption. The case was due to be heard at the courts on November 2nd, 2016. The case caused much speculation at the time, leading the political analysts to believe in the conspiracy that President Zuma was using his powers to set up a case against Minister of Finance so as to get him out of his cabinet in the much delayed cabinet reshuffle. As I have said before, this was not going to happen. President Zuma has no political capital left to gamble this case, nor has he got the legal options to pull off such a case. The news caused a considerable Rand rally, to a 2-month high, and the financial and banking stocks gained handsomely by nearly 3% at the time of writing.The way in which the NPA handled this case could not be more amateurish- Mr Abrahams did not wrap himself or his political handlers in any glory whatsoever. In fact, what the case managed to do was to awaken the soul of many dormant groupings in the society who were left with no doubt that the state institutions are being used to pursue the interest of those who have captured the state. This was further reinforced by President Zuma's application for interdicting of the Public Protector's report on state capture. The President's application to interdict the report is to be heard tomorrow- 1st November 2016.Consequently, a variety of NGOs, political activists groups, political parties, lobbying groups, and think tanks have joined forces under the banner of Save SA with a view to march in Pretoria on Wednesday which was the ori...

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