Let’s get this straight. We owe finance minister Nhlanhla Nene big time. He had the courage to stand up to the bullying of former president Jacob Zuma, and by simply refusing to bend the knee and sign what Zuma wanted him to sign, he saved us from certain fiscal disaster.
His testimony on Wednesday before judge Raymond Zondo’s inquiry into state capture was measured and credible. He recalled a meeting in his office in mid-2015 when his secretary pushed a note across his desk. “The president wants to see you,” it said. Nene indicated he’d go after the meeting. She came in again. Zuma meant come NOW.
“I left the meeting immediately,” he told the commission, “murmuring that perhaps I was going to be fired. On arrival, I found President Zuma with a senior Malaysian official from Engen/Petronas who I did not know. He explained that SA needed to own a refinery and that Petronas was prepared to sell its refinery to PetroSA. Further and most importantly, President Zuma stated that PetroSA would need a guarantee to be able to raise the funds and that as minister of finance, I would have to approve the guarantee.
“I indicated that I was not aware of this transaction but if I received an application from the entity via the relevant department, I would consider a guarantee subject to the normal evaluation process. It was at that point that President Zuma, in the presence of the Malaysian official connected to PetroSA, raised the issue of spies within Treasury.”
It all sounds a bit unfinished, and you’ll understand the public has become a little sceptical about the business and political establishment in our country. People will dig away.
What a snake Zuma was and what a hero Nene. Courage is standing up for what is right against power when no-one can see what’s being done to you. And Nene did it again and again.
The constitution ensures that as finance minister, only Nene could sign the cheques, and when the pressure mounted on him, again directly from the president, to sign a deal that would consummate Zuma’s promise to Vladimir Putin to buy nuclear reactors from Russia, he just kept saying no.
Check this from Wednesday’s testimony: on September 22 2014 Tina Joemat-Pettersson announces that SA and Russia have signed a framework agreement to purchase Russian reactors. You’ll remember that. By June 15 the government has cobbled together agreements with other countries so that the Putin deal isn’t so obvious. Urgent work begins on modelling the Putin plan.
July 8 sees a Brics summit in Ufa, Russia. Nene begins his meetings in Moscow. From there he proceeds to Ufa, where Zuma is waiting for him. His director-general, Lungisa Fuzile, flies back to SA. In Ufa Zuma wants only to know how far Nene has got with funding the nuclear deal so that he has something to tell Putin as they are soon to meet. No Treasury officials are allowed in the meeting.
Nene tells Zuma “the absence of details” makes progress with funding difficult. “During this meeting,” Nene said on Wednesday, “Mr Zuma criticised me for not finalising the financial aspects of the proposed nuclear deal with Russia. Mr Zuma said he was not happy that I was not doing what I was supposed to have done a long time ago ...”
It also gets amusing. The dreaded Tina has a draft letter, a guarantee for the Russians, for Nene to sign. He declines and tells her to sign it herself. Then he has dinner and Tina returns with another letter, which he again declines to sign. “She was,” he said, “quite concerned about what she should say to Mr Zuma.”
So for all that minister Nene, thank you, thank you, thank you. But there’s just this one thing. The Guptas. You met them. Lots of ministers did. Hell, I did. But your telling of the meetings changes. In an April 2016 you said to eNCA: “Look, I bumped into them in public gatherings once or twice, but I never had an engagement and I’ve never been asked by them to do anything for them.”
In your testimony on Wednesday you remembered six meetings at their offices and at their home for tea in Saxonwold. Hardly public gatherings, and at one of them you were asked whether they might be able to become co-owners of Independent Newspapers, despite the Public Investment Corporation (PIC) having financed Independent’s acquisition by Iqbal Survé.
It all sounds a bit unfinished, and you’ll understand the public has become a little sceptical about the business and political establishment in our country. People will dig away. You were not asked whether you had met with Survé or whether any member of your family had. There is evidence that Survé tried to get close to one of your sons. It’s important to know the truth, because as deputy finance minister (and nonexecutive chair of the PIC) you stood between Survé and the Guptas.
If there is something you left out of your testimony I can only urge you to tell it soon. Luckily, judge Zondo will invite you back. If tea with Ajay Gupta in Saxonwold was normal, as “one of my tasks ... to engage with different stakeholders in the economy” why, for instance, was it so “inappropriate” to attend the famous Sun City wedding in 2013, as you told the inquiry on Wednesday?
Still a few questions, sir.
• Bruce is a former editor of Business Day and the Financial Mail.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.