Gordhan ‘not worried’ about Gupta court case

Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan on Thursday said he was not “worried” about how his high court application seeking a declaratory order that government cannot intervene in the decision by the country’s four major banks to close the Gupta family’s bank accounts.

Speaking at the annual World Economic Forum meeting in Switzerland, Gordhan said he simply wanted legal clarity on the issue.

The minister’s extraordinary application filed in October named 72 “dubious and unusual” transactions totalling R6.8 billion against the controversial family’s companies.

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Last week the family’s lawyer Gert van der Merwe described Gordhan’s legal action as “superfluous”, saying they intended to reveal in court documents, in response to the application, on Friday how they are victims of a “planned, concerted and politically driven smear campaign”.

“My instructions are that this campaign, executed in choir, all the same voice, and for some even overwhelming, [is] with one purpose and that is to eliminate the business of the Gupta family and to gain obvious political achievement, of which we read every day,” he said.

The Guptas have never approached a court to review the banks’ decision to severe ties with them but have rather pressurised government to act on their behalf.

In December FirstRand said that suspicions of money-laundering were behind its decision stop doing business with the family at the centre of “state capture” allegations.