Three days of important investment boosting and confidence building talks and meetings were cancelled as a result of President Jacob Zuma’s urgent summons for the Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan to return home from an overseas investor roadshow. And four days after Gordhan returned – and at the time of writing – the country is still none-the-wiser as to why this action was called for.
OUTA points out that the importance of planned investor roadshows by the Minister of Finance and his team have a direct impact on investment and job creation in South Africa, with a dire need to address our economic growth targets and expectations.
“If indeed the President is to exercise his prerogative and recall a respected Minister of Finance, he owes the country and all who invest herein, a plausible and extremely rational explanation for doing so,” Wayne Duvenage, chairperson of the Organisation Undoing Tax.
“We caution the President not to act in a knee-jerk fashion to intelligence reports of possible misconduct by Minister Gordhan until he has thoroughly satisfied himself of the content and facts therein,” says Duvenage. “Our economy is far too fragile to allow political point scoring and unnecessary power positioning to get in the way of economic stability and good governance assurances, as required by the ratings agencies and investment community.
“Should it transpire that President Zuma’s call for Minister Gordhan to return from Europe on Monday was uncalled for, OUTA believes that Cabinet should challenge the President on his conduct which could be regarded as harmful and detrimental to the South African economy,” says Duvenage.
