NEWS ANALYSIS: Mission is to create narrative justifying Pravin Gordhan’s removal
FINANCE Minister Pravin Gordhan might not be arrested but he is likely to be fired. In the flimsy letter from the Hawks, in which he is warned that he was now a suspect, two issues are named: his role in establishing the covert unit at the South African Revenue Service (SARS); and his decision to provide his former deputy SARS commissioner (and close comrade) Ivan Pillay a cushy early retirement deal.On the matter of the covert unit, as Gordhan’s lawyers tell the Hawks in their response, the chance of a successful prosecution is really pie in the sky. Gordhan had the permissions in hand. The collection of covert information is not against the law.Where the law was broken — the notorious Project Sunday Evenings, in which a moonlighting member of the unit bugged the National Prosecuting Authority — there has never been a hint to link Gordhan to it.On the questions of Pillay’s retirement package, proving some sort of deviation from procedure may be an outside possibility but it will no...
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