Update: ANC NEC denies calls for Pravin Gordhan to go at meeting

According to the ANC, “only ANC policy” was discussed at today’s national executive committee (NEC) meeting.

They denied that Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan had been discussed.

Members of the ANC’s highest decision-making body between conferences, the NEC, had earlier reportedly been said to be planning to use the party’s special NEC meeting on Monday to call for the sacking of Gordhan.

EWN reported that as party NEC members gathered in Pretoria to prepare for its policy conference in June, some of them would put Gordhan’s fitness for the Treasury post firmly on top of the agenda.

This comes in the wake of the ANC Youth League, Women’s League and Umkhonto weSizwe Military Veterans’ Association (MKMVA) calling on President Jacob Zuma to fire the minister, who they claim is blocking “radical socioeconomic transformation”.

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The NEC members are regarded as Zuma’s allies within the party and want to urge him to “have the guts to fire the minister, even if the rand falls”, according to the report.

Gordhan is due to present the country’s crucial budget speech on Wednesday afternoon in Parliament.

On Friday the ANCYL said the Competition Commission’s investigation into the collusion of banks over price-fixing in the trading of foreign currency shows that National Treasury failed in its oversight of the banking sector.

The league called on Gordhan and his top management to be fired.

Meanwhile, the swearing in of former Eskom CEO Brian Molefe as a member of parliament this week has raised concerns about Zuma possibly reshuffling his Cabinet to replace Gordhan with Molefe.