Johannesburg - It seems South Africa has come out in support of Minister of Finance Pravin Gordhan’s refusal to present himself to the Hawks after the Head of the Directorate of Priority Crimes Investigation, Major-General Berning Ntlemeza, summoned him to Pretoria.
The #HandsOffPravin was trending as analysts, media personalities and politicians used it to express their outrage at the summons. Responding to the Hawks letter sent to him on Monday, Gordhan said he had been advised that the “assertions of law made by the Hawks… are wholly unfounded on any version of the facts” and he will, therefore, along with other considerations, not present himself for the taking of a warning statement.
“I have a job to do in a difficult economic environment and serve South Africa as best I can. Let me do my job,” Gordhan said in his letter to the Hawks’ Major-General Sylvia Ledwaba.
In their letter to Ledwaba, Gordhan’s lawyers point out that the allegation Gordhan facilitated the creation of a unit which gathered intelligence contrary to Section 3 of the National Strategic Intelligence Act 39 of 1994 is unfounded in law as the section did not apply to the SA Revenue Service (Sars).
Section 3(1) applies only to departments of state that are required by law to perform functions “with regard to the security of the Republic or the combating of any threat to the security of the Republic”, Gordhan’s lawyers say.
“Sars is not such a department. It was never engaged in national security matters. It was accordingly not subject to the prohibition in Section 3(1).”
The section also applied only to intelligence about any threat or potential threat to the national security and stability of the Republic, while Sars unit had never engaged in the gathering of intelligence of this kind.
In a statement in response to the Hawks letter, Gordhan says the Sars unit was part of the broader enforcement division, which had enforcement capabilities similar to those required in any tax and customs administration in the world.
Meanwhile, Gordhan received the backing of Business Unity SA (Busa), which in an open letter to President Jacob Zuma said the investigation into Gordhan lacked any legitimacy or credibility and his possible arrest threatened all progress made by the country in the past eight months.
“It is shocking that our national collective effort to avoid a ratings downgrade and to restore inclusive economic growth is now being so insidiously subverted.
"If this sinister behaviour is allowed to continue, the consequences will be devastating for our economy, and will fatally undermine our national efforts to address poverty, inequality, and unemployment,” the Busa board said.
“We urge you to act to preserve the unity and progress we have achieved since December by ensuring an end to the harassment, intimidation, and undermining of the leadership of our most important economic governance institutions.”
Former finance minister Trevor Manuel, meanwhile, said the Sars unit at the centre of the allegations against Gordhan and other former officials of the revenue service was established in the letter and spirit of the law.
Speaking on eNCA, Manuel said the Hawks were threatening the unity of the state and accused Zuma of failing to hold organs of state together in terms of the principle of co-operative governance.
It was “unseeming” of the Hawks to make pronouncements on ministers.
Judge Johan Kriegler, Advocate George Bizos and the Helen Suzman Foundation are to accompany former deputy commissioner Ivan Pillay when he reports to the Hawks at 9am.
On Wednesday, the DA welcomed Gordhan’s move not to present himself.
DA leader Mmusi Maimane said this was a “witch-hunt mandated by (President Jacob) Zuma against Gordhan on his road to the Treasury’s keys”, and the current Sars Commissioner, Tom Moyane, was seeing to it.