LETTER: Government ministers know exactly what they are doing

While your editorial criticised the government’s assertion that the banks manipulated the rand exchange rate over a decade ago to “collapse the economy”, it did not go far enough (“Cheap shots damage what’s left of the economy”, November 28).

Of course the accusation is ludicrous. Certainly, it is electioneering. But saying the government spokespeople don’t know what they are talking about and need to grow up is purblind to the real danger these allegations represent.

The ANC is playing with the banks as a cat plays with a mouse. One moment it is chummy, and the next the claws are out. You can sense Sim Tshabalala’s sense of betrayal in his recent article on BusinessLIVE, which referred to the bank’s sponsorship of government forums including Agoa and SA Tomorrow, only to be shafted with these old and tired allegations (“Banking on the rule of law”, November 26).

As even former president Thabo Mbeki put it, the banks are “counter-revolutionaries”. They are in fact a well-regulated island in a sea of government-created corruption. But they too must be destroyed.

It’s not that government ministers such as Khumbudzo Ntshavheni need to grow up. They know exactly what they are doing. At least Tshabalala is belatedly beginning to understand that the ANC government cannot be trusted.

James Cunningham
Cape Town

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