The drama surrounding South Africa’s finance minister appear to be over, and as many had expected, it concluded with president Jacob Zuma firing his finance minister.
As The Mail & Guardian reports, Zuma is set to announce a major reshuffle of his cabinet. The president has contacted affected cabinet ministers individually ahead of the formal announcement. Several reports indicate that nine ministers, including Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan, and six deputy ministers will be affected. On Thursday evening, Zuma called a special meeting of the ANC’s top six officials Cyril Ramaphosa‚ Baleka Mbete‚ Gwede Mantashe‚ Jessie Duarte and Zweli Mkhize, at his the presidential home, Mahlambandlopfu.
Besides the key finance ministry, he is expected to announce changes to several ministerial positions.
Earlier on Thursday, the SACP confirmed that Zuma had told its members that he planned to replace Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan and his deputy Mcebisi Jonas in a Cabinet reshuffle. Gordhan will reportedly be replacted by Malusi Gigaba, the South African minister of public enterprises.
He is expected to announce changes to several ministerial positions.
“The SACP wish to state that as the norm, the president informed us of his intention to effect a Cabinet reshuffle, replacing both the minister and the deputy minister of finance,” SACP deputy secretary general Solly Mapaila said.
Zuma, however, is expected to experience severe backlash to any changes to the cabinet. In this week’s M&G, the president’s detractors in the party warned that they would make Zuma’s life “unbearable” going as far as forcing him to step down if his plan to remove Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan from his position comes to pass.
The anti-Zuma faction has also warned they would join forces with opposition parties in Parliament and vote for a motion of no confidence against him. This comes as the Economic Freedom Fighters and the Democratic Alliance on Thursday announced their plans to have Zuma removed as president.
In other words, South Africa may be facing a full blown political crisis in the coming days, something increasingly reflected in the ongoing drop in the South African rand.
via http://ift.tt/2mTPfU4 Tyler Durden