CAROL PATON: As much as Nene was an exception, in some important ways he was very much like the rule
It is impossible to know while writing this what President Cyril Ramaphosa will do about his finance minister, Nhlanhla Nene. It is a difficult decision not least for practical reasons – who will replace him - but also as the moral questions attached to whether he should stay or go have become so distorted by politics and self-interest that it is hard to see the wood for the trees. Some people think they must defend Nene as it is the EFF and the Zuma bots that are engineering his downfall. Others – particularly in business – want to save Nene out of self-interest because they are weary of the constant instability that another change to the finance ministry would bring. The Treasury dreads the disruption. Still others want him to survive because if he must fall, then what about the rest of them who did far worse? People are divided not over the principle but over the politics of it. It is only among the political opposition that it is an easy choice. Fortunately for them, politics an...
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