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Coovadia slates NPA over 'bogus' Gordhan charges

Cape Town - The NPA's decision to charge Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan with fraud last Tuesday is not in the national interest, said Cas Coovadia, managing director of South Africa’s Banking Association. 

“It just doesn’t make sense,” Coovadia told News24 on the sidelines of a meeting between Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande and the business sector about tertiary fees. 

“Every investor or rating agency that we met made it very clear that they have no problem with the minister and the National Treasury. We needed to get the politics right.

“They’re working their damnedest to ensure that we get economic growth going and that we address the socio-economic problems in this country,” Coovadia said. 

The Banking Association director is one of a number of CEOs who have rallied behind the embattled finance minister in an advert published in Business Day on Monday. The others are Professor Nick Binedell of the Gordon Institute of Business Science, former Standard Bank CEO Jacko Maree, former Brait CEO Antony Ball and former JSE CEO Russell Loubser.

The business leaders, who have joined a number of cabinet ministers such as Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa, Economic Development Minister Ebrahim Patel and Tourism Minister Derek Hanekom as well as ANC chief whip Jackson Mthembu, said the country couldn’t afford for Gordhan to be sidelined or distracted. “We know him as a man of immense integrity, leadership ability and commitment,” the business leaders said. 

On Tuesday, Coovadia criticised the way the NPA had “grandstanded” at the press conference where the decision to charge Gordhan was announced. “To do things like this, and the way you do it, grandstanding at a press conference... This has happened before; the Hawks did it before. 

READ: Gordhan: Fraud charges are without merit

“At a time when we are expecting rating agencies next month, at a time when it’s just before the medium-term budget speech, at a time when he’s just come back from a very, very successful road show in New York where everybody I have spoken to said ‘we were confident about South Africa' [the charges are very inopportune],” Coovadia said. 

He added that the charges don’t make sense. “The charges are spurious. I mean - it’s an HR and admin issue.”

Coovadia said the law must take its course. “But personally speaking, I support the minister. Not because he is Pravin Gordhan, but because of the value that he stands for and the value that he is promoting.”

He said government and business will do their utmost to avoid a rating downgrade. “We have to, it’s not good for this country.”

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