Sechaba’s Shake-Up: Zuma’s regard for Van Rooyen is worrying

President Jacob Zuma’s continued praise of Des van Rooyen undermines Pravin Gordhan’s authority, writes Sechaba ka’Nkosi.

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It is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore President Jacob Zuma’s continued praise of Des van Rooyen as the best finance minister this country has ever seen.

Zuma has taken every opportunity to convince the world that Van Rooyen would have done a better job than any of the ANC MPs who have occupied the National Assembly since the 1994 dispensation.

Forget that we have had ministers such as Trevor Manuel who made our fiscal policies draw out the admiration of many countries. Or that under Manuel, our gross domestic product averaged at least 3 percent in real terms – a remarkable improvement on the 1.4 percent average annual growth registered during the period 1980 to 1993.

To Zuma, at a time when South Africa has to deal with an international meltdown in commodity prices and negative growth, Van Rooyen could have been the man to steer the country out of these troubles.

Racist appointment

Last week Zuma took admiration of the man to new heights, telling the ANC’s Gauteng provincial general council that the sharp reaction to Van Rooyen’s appointment was racist – since Van Rooyen is black.

Now there is nothing wrong with Zuma’s sentimental and passionate defence of his choice. He is entitled to his views and perhaps one day the world will see in Van Rooyen what Zuma has spent the past six months trying to make it see.

But until that happens, most South Africans will continue to view Van Rooyen’s appointment not only as ill-conceived, but also as disastrous.

They will remember him for wiping off R230 billion from the stock market and R217bn from the bond market during his four-day stint as the head of the National Treasury.

The government’s own pension administrator, the Public Investment Corporation, confirmed that it lost almost R100bn in the value of its assets during that time.

They will also remember the bitter pill Van Rooyen left in the mouths of many Merafong residents during his tenure as a mayor.

And they will recall that he himself recently admitted to have undertaken a trip to Dubai only to realise once there that his own budget could not permit him to stay for more than one day.

They will then ask themselves how a man, who can hardly understand his own pocket, could be expected to preside over a R1.5 trillion national budget.

So what then is it that makes Zuma believe that despite public opinion, Van Rooyen could have been the best South Africa could offer?

The answer lies in the apparent frosty relationships that seem to exist between Zuma and the incumbent Pravin Gordhan.

It appears that Gordhan had been elevated to the position not only because he ran a fairly stable ministry between 2009 and 2014, but because Zuma’s hand had been forced to pick someone with an established track record rather than someone whose past left a lot to be desired.

Being the loyal ANC member that he is, Gordhan has taken to the task like a duck to water. He has rallied everyone into singing from one hymn book and cajoled business and labour into making rating agencies see South Africa as a good investment destination.

He has also restored a sense of normalcy in an otherwise chaotic economy.

His biggest sin, however, appears to be have presided over the SA Revenue Service when it undertook some uncomfortable investigations against people in high places.

Zuma’s son, Edward, knows the extent of Sars’s sting under Gordhan.

But this has come at a cost.

Against the continuing praise of Van Rooyen, Gordhan has been left to fight lone battles against two other organs of state: the Hawks under Lieutenant Berning Ntlemeza and Gordhan’s successor at Sars, Tom Moyane.

Hinted at short stay

Gordhan himself does not seem unaware of the task that lies ahead. Just hours after his appointment, he hinted that his stay at the Treasury might not be for long.

And true to his prediction, before he could settle into the ministry, Ntlemeza resuscitated investigations into the so-called rogue unit that operated within Sars under Gordhan.

And Moyane implemented unprecedented changes to restructure his relationship with the Treasury – an institution that he, by law, is supposed to be answerable to.

Ntlemeza and Moyane, therefore, appear to have taken it upon themselves to undermine Gordhan. Whether they have done so with or without Zuma’s tacit approval remains unclear.

Zuma’s silence, however, on the power struggles between Gordhan and Ntlemeza and Moyane does not inspire confidence. It presupposes that these two key state institutions now operate outside the boundaries of accountability.

Under normal circumstances, it would be expected of Zuma – as the chief executive of SA Inc – to be able to marshal all his troops behind a common vision. That gives a degree of political certainty and confidence that encourages investors to pour their money into the economy, thereby creating jobs and uplifting millions from the jaws of poverty.

But the markets this week once again reminded Zuma that despite his admiration of Van Rooyen, Gordhan is the better candidate.

The rand tumbled against major currencies as news settled that Gordhan could soon swop his business suits for a prison jumpsuit if Ntlemeza has his way.

Despite official denials from the highest office in the land, the financial markets showed us one thing: that we do not learn from our past mistakes. For if we did, we would have known that our government’s tampering with something that was not broken would lead us to untold misery.

Sentimental, emotional

But there is something fundamental about Zuma’s continued high regard for Van Rooyen: it is sentimental, heartfelt and emotional.

It is more akin to former president Thabo Mbeki’s steadfast defence of his stance on HIV and Aids at a time when millions of South Africans looked to him to provide leadership on the scourge. His denial of the relationship between the two tarnished the brilliant legacy he brought to the world about Africa’s own renaissance.

Zuma’s apparent indifference to the realities of the world around him will one day haunt him not only as the man whose antics led to the first economic downgrade post apartheid, but also as the man who presided over the shambles that Parliament has become – a parliament that was once an inspiration to emerging democracies the world over.

* Sechaba’s Shake-Up is an opinion column written by Sechaba ka’Nkosi.

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