Niehaus slates Mboweni for not backing Zuma

Finance Minister Tito Mboweni has been criticised for being “disingenuous” in expecting former president Jacob Zuma to subject himself to a judicial process to prove his innocence when he had already done so.

An uMkhonto we Sizwe Military Veterans’ Association (MKMVA) spokesman, Carl Niehaus – a leading member of the radical economic transformation faction within the ANC – said Zuma acted within his rights to exhaust all available avenues to defend himself against a conspiracy by some National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) officials, such as Leonard McCarthy and Billy Downer.

WATCH: Zuma must subject himself to court processes, prove his innocence, says Mboweni

Niehaus said the way in which charges were brought against Zuma indicated a clear manipulation of the charges and conspiracy against him.

He was reacting to Mboweni’s interview with the BBC’s Hardtalk, in which the minister said Zuma must subject himself to the judicial processes to prove his innocence.

Mboweni was referring to Zuma’s refusal to appear before the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture, chaired by Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, and his subsequent charging for contempt of court by the Constitutional Court. Zondo asked the Constitutional Court to impose a two-year sentence against him.

The former president is due to appear in the KwaZulu-Natal High Court in Pietermaritzburg today on numerous charges, including corruption emanating from the 1999 multibillion-rand arms deal.

Although Mboweni is a senior member of the ANC and a senior Cabinet minister, some critics say he is not an influential figure in the party.

In fact, many in the party did not take him seriously in whatever he said or did.

Mboweni, a former governor of the SA Reserve Bank, despite being a senior minister in the Ramaphosa administration, is often not taken heed of.

His economic blueprint, Economic Transformation, Inclusive Growth and Competitiveness: Towards an Economic Strategy for South Africa, was rejected within the party.

Instead, the document was replaced by economic recovery plans proposed by President Cyril Ramaphosa.

The 77-page plan, published in 2019, proposed to increase economic growth from around 1% to 4% and create one million job opportunities.

Big business, opposition parties and economists welcomed Mboweni’s plan as a “bold move” that needed to be supported.

Mboweni is not popular among the ANC left because of his “neoliberal” approach to economic growth planning that leaned towards capitalism.