THE renewed assault on Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan has President Jacob Zuma’s fingerprints all over it. Given that the creation of an investigative unit inside the South African Revenue Service does not, under any existing law, constitute a criminal offence, and given that the failure of the Hawks to specify the nature of the crime for which the finance minister is supposedly being investigated, it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that we are witnessing a ham-fisted attack on Gordhan’s reputation.At first sight, this move might suggest that Zuma’s hold on power is intensifying. In reality, it almost certainly signifies the opposite. Zuma has clearly been pondering a Cabinet reshuffle for some time, to oust Deputy Finance Minister Mcebisi Jonas and other South African Communist Party-(SACP-)aligned leaders. The SACP has come out against a Zuma-anointed successor to the ANC presidency.Zuma’s original plan was presumably to use probable ratings agency downgrades at the end of 2...
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