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Cape Town – Malusi Gigaba - who will be sworn in as finance minister at 18:00 on Friday - has been deployed to Treasury to perform a particular agenda for the Guptas, Save SA said on Friday.
Political analyst Ralph Mathekga told News24 on Friday that the fact that Gigaba is "in the Guptas’ pocket is beyond speculation".
"There was, for instance, a clear illustration of this when he used his influence to wrest a private terminal at OR Tambo International Airport from the Oppenheimers for the Guptas."
The Guptas may be facing an immediate crisis that Treasury could solve, as Business Day cited sources who said they may not have a bank by Friday; it is an allegation the Guptas deny.
According to Business Day sources, “more than half of the bank accounts of Gupta-related entities have been closed in recent weeks by their last remaining bankers, the Bank of Baroda, with the process continuing”.
Save SA said in a statement that "the Guptas have anointed their proxies to loot National Treasury at their behest".
"It is clear that they intend to make their first order of business the approval of a banking licence for the Gupta proxies at Habib Bank, and then to facilitate money-laundering and illicit deals,"
"It is therefore a Gupta coup and final confirmation – for those who needed it – that our president, our government and our country have been captured by compradors intent on destroying our democracy."
Save SA steering committee member Lawson Naidoo said Zuma’s move to create a younger Cabinet was not effective, as those deployed were there to serve other purposes.
“You have to bring in young people who have the capacity to do the job,” he said. Malusi (Gigaba, the new finance minister) doesn’t have the capacity. He is the same as Des van Rooyen, as he has been deployed to perform a particular agenda for the Guptas and Zuma”.
Time running out for Habib Bank
The North Gauteng High Court on Thursday heard an urgent application by Vardospan, which is headed by Hamza Farooqui and Salim Essa (close associates of the Guptas). They want the court to review and set aside the alleged failure by the Registrar of Banks and Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan to determine its application, and grant it permission to buy a majority stake in Habib Bank and be registered as the controlling company.
However, Judge Ronel Tolmay said the urgent application may have been filed too late for the court to consider. Vardospan says it requires approval by Friday as that is the deadline for the purchase agreement.
A ruling on the matter will be heard at 10:00, across the road from Treasury at the Palace of Justice.
READ: Judge says urgent application against Gordhan, SARS may be too late
Furthermore, judgment in the Guptas' bank case that Gordhan brought to the North Gauteng High Court was reserved on Wednesday following a two-day hearing this week.
Here, Gordhan was seeking relief from having to intervene on behalf of the Guptas to get their Oakbay and related companies' bank accounts reopened following their blacklisting by Nedbank, FNB, Standard Bank and Absa.
Save SA join forces with Vavi to occupy Treasury
Save South Africa and Zwelinzima Vavi led-South African Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu) have called on South Africans to mobilise in Pretoria to “symbolically occupy the Treasury”.
“The time to take to the streets is now,” said Save SA steering committee member Lawson Naidoo, who said Save SA has partnered with Saftu's planned "occupy Treasury" movement.
The mobilisation is expected to begin on Friday morning at 10:00.
READ: Vavi, Save SA to march to Treasury against 'Gupta coup'
“The aim of this movement is to make President Jacob Zuma reverse the decisions taken and force him out of office,” he told Fin24 on Friday.
In a brutal display of power, the president fired five ministers, including Tourism Minister Derek Hanekom, who asked for Zuma to be recalled last year.
Lawson called on all organisations and individuals to “stand up to protect the sovereignty of South Africa, as power is blindly being handed over to Zuma and the Guptas.”
“Zuma is the architect of this and South Africans need to express their anger,” he said, adding that protesters need to remain disciplined and not show their anger with violence.
The worst-case scenario is that this could lead to Zuma deploying the military and could eventually lead to a state of emergency, which many analysts believe would play into the president’s hands.
“We have seen it in the increasing militarisation of the state,” he said. “He has normalised having the army on streets at his State of the Nation this year. It points to a potential concern that he could use the military to protect political power.”
Zuma’s kleptocratic faction's desperate bid - Vavi
Vavi, the Saftu steering committee convener, said in a statement on Friday that “the country has now been plunged into its biggest crisis since 1994”.
Saftu appealed to “all South Africans to flood the streets of Pretoria and symbolically occupy the Treasury in the strongest possible protest”.
“The main issue is not the fate of individuals but the fact that this move means that Zuma’s kleptocratic faction of the ANC is making a desperate bid to cling on to power in the face of overwhelming opposition from not only Saftu but civil society and even within the ANC’s allies.
“We now have a government with no credibility, one which has surrendered power to powerful crony capitalist factions and delivered a slap in the face of millions of South Africans.”
“The aim of our campaign is the liberation of the working class and the poor majority from the shackles of a capitalist system.
“If we miss this chance to bring about real change then we would have acted in the interests of our class enemies,” said Vavi, who coined the phrase "don't moan; mobilise".
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