Zuma vs Gordhan: It’s all about the bank
PETER BRUCE: Guptas can bank on Zuma firing Gordhan
As the influential family runs out of banking options, so the noose tightens for the finance minister
Business Day today carries as its front page lead everything you might want to know about why Jacob Zuma is so desperate to get rid of Pravin Gordhan as finance minister. What it reveals is what we all secretly know. A terrible truth. It’s not the nuclear deal. It’s not a pivot to China. It has nothing to do with ideology or even with politics. It has to do with his friends, the Guptas. By tomorrow they will have really run out of banking facilities in SA. Not only have the main SA banks stopped doing business with them, but the Bank of China has now as well. Worse, the Indian bank they have been relying on, the Bank of Baroda — useful because of its spread of branches in Dubai — is reliably reported to have begun to close Gupta accounts as well. And worse, the Reserve Bank has given notice that it will oppose an application by Gupta associates to force it (the Bank) to make a decision on their application to buy a bank of their own, Habib Bank. The Gupta crowd wants a decision by t...
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