Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan does not believe that South African Revenue Service (SARS) employee Luther Lebelo should have written a letter to Business Day attacking rating agencies, even if this was done in his personal capacity.
In a written reply to a parliamentary question by DA finance spokesman David Maynier, Gordhan said as far as the finance ministry was concerned, "Mr Lebelo, as a senior and influential manager in SARS, should not be commenting on a sensitive and serious matter such as ratings in the public domain".
The minister believes SARS management should be held to account for failing to take action on the issue.
SARS has informed Gordhan that it will not take disciplinary action against Lebelo as he wrote the letter to Business Day in his private and personal capacity.
In his letter Lebelo — who is linked to the Progressive Professionals Forum headed by the Gupta-supporting Mzwanele Manyi — described credit rating agencies as "economic gangs" organised by the CIA and used by SA’s Western oppressors to whip the country into line and to impose their own preferred economic and social system.
The letter also stated that the ANC had been "tamed and managed" by the rating agencies at the expense of the poor and unemployed masses.
Gordhan said in his reply that Lebelo could not surely "be allowed to attack the very government that pays his salary on a matter that is of importance to all South Africans — except those who pursue an ignominious agenda against the national interest — with impunity?"
He said Lebelo’s attack on the ANC was unwarranted and showed ignorance.
"He displays a complete lack of understanding of the role of borrowing money both locally and from foreign lenders in helping to finance our social programmes for the poor.
"It is the very same poor people and the vulnerable middle-class South Africans, the vast majority of whom are black, who will be affected by rising interest rates and prices should the South African sovereign lose its investment grading."
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