Outa slams Mosebenzi Zwane for trying to oust Gordhan

The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) has expressed outrage at the daring move by Jacob Zuma’s former mineral resources minister Mosebenzi Zwane to lead an attempt to have Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan dismissed over the Eskom debacle.

Zwane, who was Free State MEC for agriculture when the Vrede-based Estina dairy farm looting occurred, reportedly led the charge at the recent ANC lekgotla calling for President Cyril Ramaphosa to act against Gordhan.

Zwane also claimed that Gordhan and Finance Minister Tito Mboweni were treated like “super ministers” by Ramaphosa.

However, the ANC national executive committee resolved that it was the president who had the prerogative to hire and fire ministers and decided not to pursue Zwane’s suggestion.

Zwane was redeployed after the 2019 general elections to the National Assembly where he was appointed as chairperson of the portfolio committee on transport, which did parliamentary oversight on state-owned enterprises such as SAA, Prasa and Transnet.

Ramaphosa backers such as the ANC stalwarts and veterans and the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation believed that those responsible for the state capture were hell-bent on fighting back against Gordhan and that their anti-Gordhan campaign actually aimed at Ramaphosa himself.

The foundation endorsed the veterans’ call that the onslaught against Gordhan is being run by those implicated in state capture.

Outa questioned why would anybody listen to Zwane. This was a reference to the ANC MP’s involvement in the dairy farm saga for which he was implicated by the former public protector Thuli Madonsela’s State of Capture report.

“Since 2012 there has been a golden thread that attaches Zwane to the Guptas. Outa believes that Zwane had an improper and corrupt relationship with the Guptas, to the detriment of South Africa. We believed that he abandoned the oath of office and abused his public office as an MEC in the Free State, as an MP and as minister of mineral resources to enrich the Gupta family and their business associates,” said Rudie Heyneke, Outa’s portfolio manager on state capture.

Heyneke said they believed that Zwane should be facing criminal charges instead of being an MP.

Zwane was among those named in Outa’s affidavit detailing the case against the group, a case that was still open.

The affidavit accompanied charges that Outa laid in August 2017 arising from state capture against Duduzane Zuma, the Guptas and Zwane.

In October 2017, Outa submitted a complaint to the parliamentary ethics committee about Zwane.

Subsequently, in April 2018, the organisation won a legal settlement which stopped R1.7 billion in mine rehabilitation funds from moving into Gupta control at the Bank of Baroda.

“These funds, held in trust to pay for mine rehabilitation so the state and taxpayers do not have to fund this, were supposed to have been secured by Zwane, who was then the minister of mineral resources. He failed to protect these funds, so Outa had to go to court to do this,” Heyneke said.

– ericn@citizen.co.za

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