Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba yesterday distanced himself from the controversy surrounding the non-appointment of a predecessor, Nhlanhla Nene, to the New Development Bank, almost two years after the post was promised to him.
The current acting head of the African Regional Centre of the New Development Bank is Tumisang Moleke, the director of the Public Private Partnership Unit at National Treasury.
Asked to comment whether Nene was still a candidate for the top job at the bank, Gigaba said: “Let me start with Mr Nene. I wouldn't know.
"I didn't appoint him. I don't know what happened (because) I was not involved in that process. I think you can ask someone else.”
President Jacob Zuma hastily recalled Nene as finance minister in December 2015, saying his name had been put forward to head the African Regional Centre of the New Development Bank, a move that sent the rand on a nosedive.
At the time, Zuma said the urgency of the change in leadership of the National Treasury was “occasioned by the need to send nominations to Shanghai, of the head of the African Regional Centre of the New Development Bank/Brics Bank, to be based in Johannesburg”.
But the promise never materialised and Nene has since taken various private sector jobs and resigned as an ANC MP following his sacking.
The New Development Bank is a development banking institution created by the Brics member states (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) as an alternative to the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
Headquartered in Shanghai, China, the bank is meant to boost infrastructure development in the five member states and other emerging economies.
Last week, former governor of the Reserve Bank Tito Mboweni’s contract as a non-executive director of the Brics New Development Bank was not renewed after serving a two-year term. Mboweni was replaced by National Treasury director-general Dondo Mogajane.
Deputy Finance Minister Sfiso Buthelezi also serves as the alternate governor of the bank for South Africa.