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Anatomy of Mosebenzi Zwane's great big Gupta lie
Minerals minister Mosebenzi Zwane has just been exposed for telling the biggest lie by a person in his position in post-apartheid South Africa. (There were plenty bigger lies before that, but that's for another day.)
This is how it unfolded.
1. On Thursday evening, Zwane issued a statement, purporting to be the official view of the cabinet. It said that the cabinet had adopted his proposal that a full judicial inquiry be held into the banks that had denied the Guptas a banking licence. It went further to state that the Treasury and the Reserve Bank be investigated and that legal action be considered against them for allowing this injustice to occur.
2. On Friday morning, the Business Day newspaper - and others - gave the story a great deal of prominence and rightly observed: "The announcement comes as investor confidence in SA is in free-fall, as a slew of decisions emerging from the Zuma administration creates growing uncertainty in the rules regulating the economy." The news moved the markets, adding to the wave of negative investor sentiment that has weakened the rand and caused financial agencies to reconsider funding government entities.
3. Then, BOOM! On Friday evening, the presidency issued a statement which absolutely denied that any such decision had been taken, saying that this was merely the proposal of a task team. The statement said: "Minister Zwane is a member of the task team. He does not speak on behalf of Cabinet and the contents of his statement do not reflect the position or views of Cabinet, the Presidency or government. The unfortunate contents of the statement and the inconvenience and confusion caused by the issuing thereof, are deeply regretted."
It is surely not possible that Zwane can continue as a cabinet minister of such a dangerous and costly outright lie, one which had be corrected by the presidency in such strong terms.
Or has the Zuma administration become so politically elastic that it will tolerate such a blatant ethical, moral and strategic failure?
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