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The World Economic Forum media team told me Pravin Gordhan’s Davos briefing on the SA economy was viewed 65 000 times – some kind of a record for an address of its kind. No doubt a recording of Gordhan’s pre-Budget meeting with President Jacob Zuma would have comfortably surpassed that.
For reasons which are obvious to those in my industry, the embattled Zuma has decided to expand his patronage by launching his own Presidential Press Corps. You can expect representatives of Gupta Media will find it warmer than at EFF functions. It had a rather inauspicious start, though, when Nkandla’s king stated erstwhile backbencher Des van Rooyen remains his preferred choice for Finance Minister.
Which tells us that in Zuma’s mind, Nenegate and the R500bn it wiped off the value of SA stocks and bonds in two days, was all a misunderstanding. Or perhaps the fiendish plot by western capitalists, a fantasy given airtime recently by ANC general secretary Gwede Mantashe.
What Gordhan would be making of his boss’s pointed sleight two days before presenting the Budget is anyone’s guess. But Zuma has already moved on, issuing a statement yesterday that his pre-Budget meeting with Gordhan and able deputy Mcebisi Jonas went well. Zuma says Gordhan and his team “have done their best….it’s a difficult year.” Pity the President still refuses to accept the key role he played in making it so. Denial is not a river in Africa.
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