Mngxitama celebrates Gordhan’s sacking

Leader of Black First Land First (BLF) says his party is happy that Pravin Gordhan was sacked.

He and his party had been waging a campaign against the minister for months, claiming he was in the pocket of “white monopoly capital”. The Sunday Times reported earlier this month that Mngxitama appeared to be part of a Gupta-funded PR project to discredit those perceived to be President Jacob Zuma’s enemies, with Gordhan firmly in their cross hairs.

The paper alleged that, with the help of international spin doctors Bell Pottinger, the concept of white monopoly capital was identified as a distraction from serious allegations of state capture by the Gupta family.

Speaking to the SABC on Friday, the BLF leader said Gordhan’s sacking was long overdue because he had protected and defended white monopoly capital. The jubilant BLF leader said that the former finance minister had been “compromised”.

He had even at one point opened a corruption case at a police station against Gordhan.

Zuma reshuffled his Cabinet on Thursday night – a move that saw five ministers sacked and five more reshuffled.

“Our movement, Black First Land First, is quite happy. We believe the events of last night … this morning was extraordinary. And as a movement we’ve been begging the president … calling on the president to fire Pravin Gordhan and Mcebisi Jonas.

“We have a high court application against the former minister of finance Pravin Gordhan. That application which is before the high court. We said that the court must declare him captured. Declare him compromised and conflicted.

“We must remember that Pravin was not the preferred candidate of the president for that position. The president was forced by white monopoly capital to basically appoint him.”

Mngxitama was referring to the fact that in December 2015, Zuma was forced to reverse his appointment of Des van Rooyen as finance minister after just four days when the markets reeled in shock and then install the more experienced hand of Gordhan to settle the ship.

“When he [Gordhan] took over, [he] acted to protect the same white monopoly capital that put him in that position which, in the papers we put before court … we show that he even has shares in the companies of the same white monopoly capital. The same banks which are found to have been colluding. The same companies such as Unilever which have been stealing from the poor. Pravin Gordhan has shares in that. Pravin Gordhan has been protecting them.

“We do not have a state bank. We do not have a black bank, and Pravin Gordhan has been protecting the white monopoly of the banking system. He has literally been stopping the entry of new black banks into the system. He should have by now fully licensed Ithala Bank, the Post Bank, VSB bank.”