Parliament - Opposition parties have called for Mineral Resources Minister Mosebenzi Zwane’s head after he failed to explain his reasons for making an unauthorised statement that banks would face a judicial inquiry.
On Wednesday Zwane refused to apologise for his conduct or explain what drove him to go against cabinet protocol.
This left the opposition up in arms, saying he must quit his job as he put the country at financial risk with the markets. But Zwane refused to resign, saying it was the president who hired and fired ministers.
This happened as Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan came to the defence of the banks during question time in the National Assembly.
Zwane left opposition MPs fuming with his lack of explanation on why he issued the statement on the banks without approval. He said there was a separation of powers between the executive arm of the state and the legislature.
President Jacob Zuma, the ANC, SACP and Cosatu have rebuked Zwane for his unauthorised statement.
When Gordhan was asked by EFF deputy leader Floyd Shivambu what he thought about the proposal by Zwane in his statement on the banks, and the impact this would have, Gordhan said there were processes in place.
“The banking regulation is part of the brief of the Ministry of Finance. As far as we are concerned we are compliant and we are one of the best in the world,” he said. This was in relation to Zwane’s statement that the instruments in place were not effective in dealing with people with complaints against the banks.
Gordhan said the Financial Services Board and the banking ombudsman were institutions to deal with problems against the banking sector.
Zwane had called for an investigation by the judicial inquiry into the effectiveness of these bodies.
DA MP David Maynier described Zwane as an embarrassment to the ANC, the Presidency and the cabinet.
“As I have said before, honourable Maynier has no right to ask me to resign,” said Zwane. “The people who have been prejudiced by this matter, some of them are here in the Western Cape.”
He stuck to his guns and said he would not give an explanation.
“As I said before, all I said on that Thursday was that the issues discussed in cabinet cannot be of public consumption currently. The issue of the inquiry can be decided by the president,” said Zwane.
IFP MP Narend Singh accused Zwane of bidding for the Guptas in the matter, since their accounts were closed down by the banks.
Responding to Shivambu’s question of whether he supported an inquiry as proposed by Zwane, Gordhan said there were already regulations in place to deal with the banking sector and South Africa had strong systems.
He said that perhaps some of the issues might need to be discussed.
Political Bureau