In or out: Gordhan mum on his future

Cape Town - Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan on Wednesday said he would not answer questions on whether he was tabling his last budget, or would return to his portfolio after the May elections.

"All of us serve at the pleasure of the president. Wait for the elections and the occasion when the president formally tells you what his cabinet is going to look like. I invite you to be disciplined," he told a media briefing ahead of his budget speech.

"No questions on that issue need to be accommodated."

In the briefing, Gordhan later pointed out that he was not tabling a "four-month budget" but a medium-term expenditure framework for three years, suggesting that there would be fiscal stability regardless of the change of administration in May.

The minister recently hinted in a newspaper interview that he may end his tenure as finance chief after the poll, saying if he did so the reasons would be partly political, partly personal.

However, he added, in the end the decision would rest with the ruling party.