GORDHAN’S RECALL
NATASHA MARRIAN: Zuma starts ‘Operation Break Chessboard’
’Every opponent Zuma has faced since he came into office has been accused of a plot, ploy or intelligence operation aimed solely at weakening him'’
Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan was expected to return to the country on Wednesday morning. So why was it necessary for President Jacob Zuma to plunge the country into a furious tizz by "instructing" him to return with "immediate effect"? We now have a hint about why he did it. A strange "intelligence document", described by its peddler as emanating from a "foreign intelligence service", was sent to Business Day and a host of other media on Monday, claiming that Gordhan and deputy minister Mcebisi Jonas were meeting international business to lobby for support against Zuma if he removes them from office. The report would be dismissed out of hand were it not for Zuma’s own actions: this was the reason he gave his fellow leaders in the ANC top six for his sudden instruction to Gordhan to return to the country with immediate effect. He presented the leaders of the party with the report to defend his decision. Let that sink in: the president of the country used the document to justify cu...
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