Durban - The Active Citizens Movement has promised to rally more support for Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan should he be charged by the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA).
This is after a newspaper report on Sunday claimed Gordhan was expected to be charged again next month as the NPA and the Hawks were busy investigating a strong case against him in connection with the so-called Sars rogue unit.
The City Press quoted sources from the Hawks and NPA saying Gordhan and former Sars deputy, Ivan Pillay, would be charged “before Christmas”.
While NPA spokesman Luvuyo Mfaku said no decision to prosecute Gordhan had yet been taken, he said investigations were continuing into the establishment of the unit in 2007, when Gordhan was commissioner of Sars.
“There is no decision to prosecute anyone on the so-called rogue unit. Once the investigation is completed, a docket will be presented to the prosecutors, in this case the NPA, to prepare charges. We have not received a docket as yet,” he said.
On Sunday, one of organisers of Active Citizens Movement, Yashika Padia, said it was hard to ascertain whether the news report on recharging of Gordhan was based on credible sources or mere speculation.
“Should it be the case, we will step up our HandsOffGordhan and HandsOffTreasury campaign,” Padia said.
When the NPA charged Gordhan, Pillay and former Sars commissioner Oupa Magashula with fraud, the Active Citizen Movement was among the lobby groups that backed the finance minister and questioned the charges.
The movement, which included liberation struggle activists, had even planned to meet at the Durban City Hall or outside the Sars offices when Gordhan, Pillay and Magashula were to appear in court last week.
When the charges were withdrawn, they went ahead with a gathering at Gugu Dlamini Park and called, among other things, for President Zuma to step down.
Padia was confident the next mobilisation campaign would be much stronger.
“We will come up with another mobilisation campaign. People are willing to come up and show their support. This time it is going to be 10 times more,” Padia said.
She insisted there was a political agenda driving efforts to charge Gordhan and the reports of bringing fresh charges against him were not surprising.
“The political situation is so volatile. Nothing is surprising anymore. There was always a possibility that he would be recharged… (But) I don’t know whether that will happen or not.”
Padia also pointed out that NPA head Shaun Abrahams, when he first charged Gordhan, had spoken at length about the rogue unit only to announce fraud charges relating to Pillay’s pension.
“If he is charged we will mobilise against the charges.”
Yousuf Vawda, another organiser of the movement, recalled that Abrahams had talked at length about the rogue unit when he announced fraud charges against Gorgan and the other two men.
“It was clear they were not close to having a case,” he said.
However, Vawda said Gordhan and those named in the matter had publicly repudiated it, saying “there was nothing untoward about the unit. It was set up for particular reasons”.
He also said the movement would meet soon to discuss its next move.
Vawda also said their meeting would look into the public protector’s State of Capture report which was released last week. It recommended a commission of inquiry, whose head was to be appointed the Chief Justice of South Africa.
Brigadier Hangwani Mulaudzi said the Hawks were not pursuing fresh charges against Gordhan, SABC News reported on Monday morning.
However, the Daily News could not reach him for further comment at the time of publication.