Jacob Zuma. Picture: JOHN HOGG
Jacob Zuma. Picture: JOHN HOGG

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Zuma dodges Maimane's Gupta question

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PRESIDENT Jacob Zuma faces a battle to save his presidency as ruling party leaders prepare for a showdown this weekend over the Gupta controversy that one top official said is threatening to turn SA into a "mafia state".

The meeting of the African National Congress’s (ANC’s) national executive committee (NEC) comes after revelations that the Gupta family, who are Mr Zuma’s family friends and business partners of his son, offered ministerial posts to ruling party officials.

On Wednesday, Deputy Finance Minister Mcebisi Jonas said he rejected a proposal made personally by the Gupta brothers that he take over the finance ministry position. Mr Zuma said on Thursday that he alone had the power to offer ministerial positions.

"We need to deal with this; it will degenerate into a mafia state if this goes on," ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe said on Thursday.

"The fact we are talking about this so boldly now shows that things are going to change."

The country’s worst political crisis since the NEC recalled Thabo Mbeki as president in 2008 comes at a time when the economy is threatened with recession and hovering close to a junk credit rating, and just months before municipal elections. A failure by the ANC to deal decisively with the scandal could erode support for the party, which has won more than 60% of the vote since apartheid ended in 1994.

"This is a defining moment," former public enterprises minister Barbara Hogan said on Thursday on Talk Radio 702. "This cannot be swept under the carpet."

The NEC "has a historical mission like never before. It has to deal with this rot, it has to clear it out," she said.

While some ANC members, including former treasurer-general Mathews Phosa and Ben Turok, the former head of the party’s ethics committee, want Mr Zuma to go, his allies dominate the committee and he has shrugged off a succession of previous scandals.

Zuma’s control

"Zuma still has control of the majority of the members of the NEC and that’s what counts," said Theo Venter, a political analyst at North-West University. "He will survive the week, but with less power than he had."

Mr Zuma said on Thursday that he had no knowledge of the Guptas offering officials Cabinet posts.

"The Constitution does not require me to consult anyone before I appoint or remove a minister or deputy minister," Mr Zuma told Parliament. "I am in charge of the government. You don’t need the Guptas to appoint anyone. There are no ministers here who were appointed by the Guptas."

Gordhan’s feud

Mr Jonas’s revelation about the finance minister post "marks a grave threat to our country’s constitutional democracy", said Business Leadership SA.

The rand gained on Wednesday after Mr Jonas released his statement. It strengthened 1.6% to R15.4105 to the dollar by 3pm.

Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan is engaged in a public feud with the Hawks over their investigation into the South African Revenue Service (SARS), an investigation Mr Zuma has backed.

The Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation on Tuesday said that Mr Gordhan missed two deadlines to answer questions relating to SARS, which he led before 2009, and indicated it would force him to comply. Mr Gordhan has described the Hawks’ statements as "threatening" and as harassment.

A series of scandals have shadowed Mr Zuma’s political career. The former head of the ANC’s intelligence wing took office in May 2009 just weeks after prosecutors dismissed graft charges against him. Since then, he’s been accused of squandering taxpayers’ money on the R215m upgrade of Nkandla and allowing the Guptas to use the Waterkloof air force base to transport guests to a wedding. He denies any wrongdoing.

Finance minister

Dissent over his stewardship of the country intensified in December when his decision to name a little-known MP as his finance minister in place of the respected Nhlanhla Nene sent the rand and stock and bond markets into a tailspin.

Four days later, Mr Zuma reappointed Mr Gordhan to the post that he had held from 2009-2014, after coming under presser from ANC and business leaders.

While the ANC said it had confirmed the Guptas’ meeting with Mr Jonas and took the allegations very seriously, the Guptas dismissed them as a fabrication.

"These latest allegations are just more political point scoring between rival factions within the ANC," said the family, which has built up a business empire ranging from computers and media, to uranium mining.

Mr Jonas’s allegation came a day after Vytjie Mentor, the chairwoman of the parliament’s portfolio committee on public enterprises until 2010, said in a Facebook post that the Gupta family had offered her the job of public enterprises minister in the past, while Mr Zuma was in their house. The Presidency said Mr Zuma had "no recollection" of Ms Mentor and could not comment on her allegations.

Small Business Development Minister Lindiwe Zulu, who sits on the NEC, defended the Guptas. "They can make whatever offer they want," she said. "What’s wrong with that? It’s not their power to appoint people."

Mr Zuma’s lawyer, Michael Hulley, said while Zuma had not contacted him regarding Mr Jonas’s statement, the president had nothing to answer for because his name was not mentioned. Mr Zuma’s spokesman Bongani Majola did not answer calls to his cellphone.

"Zuma has been hammered by a lot of body blows, but no knock-out punch has been delivered yet," Political Futures Consultancy director Daniel Silke said. "There will be a long, messy process as more members of the ANC come out to express their dissatisfaction over the issue of the Guptas and state capture, but they won’t recall him as they did with Thabo Mbeki. It would be too embarrassing."

Bloomberg