THE damaging battle being waged against Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan is beginning to make me feel sick to my stomach and very angry. He is the only man placed, ranked and capable of rescuing us from a credit downgrade that would be incredibly costly to an economy already in trouble.
The leaked exchanges from this battle are manipulating our exchange rate, and I’ll be very surprised if someone isn’t deliberately creating a crisis to make big money out of it. Perhaps they are set up to make even more out of a downgrade. That someone doesn’t give a damn about the negative consequences for the country. This is economic sabotage, but let’s examine what is actually happening.
The subject of the South African Revenue Service "rogue unit" is far from new — it has been going on for months and doesn’t suddenly have to be resolved tomorrow. As Mr Gordhan has been the first to state, he is neither above the law nor trying to avoid it. He (and the country) just have much higher priorities. The deadlines the Hawks are throwing at him are arbitrary and can only be designed to distract him and show him in a negative light.
The Hawks leadership would have to have all their senses shut off not to be fully aware of the damage they risk. From this, it sticks out a mile that they are being required to do this by someone and this could not happen without at least the tacit approval of President Jacob Zuma. That makes our president a traitor to his country.
And still, the African National Congress is letting this happen — "good men doing nothing".
Roger Briggs
Bedfordview
Rands. Picture: THINKSTOCK
THE damaging battle being waged against Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan is beginning to make me feel sick to my stomach and very angry. He is the only man placed, ranked and capable of rescuing us from a credit downgrade that would be incredibly costly to an economy already in trouble.
The leaked exchanges from this battle are manipulating our exchange rate, and I’ll be very surprised if someone isn’t deliberately creating a crisis to make big money out of it. Perhaps they are set up to make even more out of a downgrade. That someone doesn’t give a damn about the negative consequences for the country. This is economic sabotage, but let’s examine what is actually happening.
The subject of the South African Revenue Service "rogue unit" is far from new — it has been going on for months and doesn’t suddenly have to be resolved tomorrow. As Mr Gordhan has been the first to state, he is neither above the law nor trying to avoid it. He (and the country) just have much higher priorities. The deadlines the Hawks are throwing at him are arbitrary and can only be designed to distract him and show him in a negative light.
The Hawks leadership would have to have all their senses shut off not to be fully aware of the damage they risk. From this, it sticks out a mile that they are being required to do this by someone and this could not happen without at least the tacit approval of President Jacob Zuma. That makes our president a traitor to his country.
And still, the African National Congress is letting this happen — "good men doing nothing".
Roger Briggs
Bedfordview
