ANC president Jacob Zuma.
Pravin Gordhan is the Ubiquitous Man. He has been everywhere this week, even giving a serene and sensible mid-term budget speech while facing charges of fraud and theft levelled against him by the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) and the Hawks.
He had something to say about student fees and funds, which is another big issue that sparked another climactic conflict within the past few weeks – indeed, students were facing off with police outside Parliament as Gordhan spoke. And this was barely a week after Gordhan had placed on legal record his understanding of the suspect financial dealings of the Gupta family, who are now gearing up, they say, to see him in court.
Perhaps Gordhan is relatively unruffled because, as has become clear, the charges against him are trumped up and unlikely to stand up in court.
And meanwhile, as we report in this edition of the Mail & Guardian, an ignominious kerfuffle at the South African Revenue Service (Sars) office has led to the revelation that one of Sars’s own lawyers had serious ethical problems with the case being pursued against Gordhan. It also shows that Sars commissioner Tom Moyane, who succeeded Gordhan to that position, is colluding with the Hawks to construct the case against Gordhan – which indicates that it was correct to see him as a proxy of President Jacob Zuma, placed at Sars to look after the president’s interests there.
Moreover, the Sars “hostage” drama exposes the fact that the Hawks were, and probably are still, digging for evidence – well after the charges were laid and announced with much fanfare. This is another sign that the case against Gordhan is not going well for the NPA and the Hawks.
There’s a grim laugh to be had in the bumblings of these figures, but it’s good to remember too that they are allegedly Zuma’s proxies – it is thought to be his invisible hand that lies behind such manoeuvres by law enforcement agencies he has “captured”.
Civil society bodies such as the Helen Suzman Foundation are to be commended for speedily referring much of this legal chicanery to the courts: if this is about the law being applied, let us follow it through and apply the law meticulously all round.
The charges are also backfiring against Gordhan’s accusers because the day of his first appearance in court, November 2, has become the start date for a new campaign against those seen to be looting state resources and abusing the law to settle scores against whoever tries to block them.
Rallying around Gordhan and expressing support for him is also a way to say, once more – more loudly and in as many different voices as possible – that it’s time for Zuma to go. It’s time for the looting and misgovernance to end. As Gordhan’s budget briefing showed, South Africa is having a very bad time economically and we have to tackle its problems with seriousness and determination.
It is significant and heartening that Gordhan received a standing ovation from the whole of Parliament, opposition included, when he got up to speak on Wednesday. That is not something that has happened in a long time. Is there another leader as embattled as Gordhan is who has received that kind of encouragement from his political peers? It should give Zuma some pause for thought.