THE BUFFALO IN THE ROOM: The politics of Pravin Gordhan

First the context. As Pravin Gordhan, his deputy, Mcebisi Jonas, and Treasury officials strolled up the grey cobblestones leading to the entrance to Parliament, their look was one of determination. Grim determination.

This was not surprising given the political context in which they have been operating. Bear with me while I recount recent events.

In exactly one week, Gordhan is due to appear in court on fraud charges relating to his signing off of an early retirement package for Ivan Pillay, an official at SARS.

The charges were announced by chief prosecutor, Shaun Abrahams, at a strangely stilted media briefing, where he appeared to be reading like a robot from a prepared (Java?) script.

Since Abrahams' announcement, the charges have been laughed off by the legal community. Former senior judges such as Zac Yacoob (Constitutional Court) and Johann Kriegler (Appellate Division, Constitutional Court) and other sharp legal minds such as Paul Hoffman, SC, have publicly torn the charge sheet to pieces.

Barely a day goes by without some or other league or some or other feral KwaZulu-Natal politician rounding on Gordhan to demand his resignation

—  FERAL POLITICIANS

It is now common cause that the charges have as flimsy a basis in law as Dorothy's red slippers have in folklore*. Abrahams, who originally said it had been his decision to prosecute, has now said his underlings made the call and he hasn't yet made up his own mind. His callowness now apparent, it can be safely said that Gordhan won that round.

Outside of the looming court drama, Gordhan has been the target of an assortment of journeymen politicians with close ties to the Gupta family. The likes of Local Government Minister, Des van Rooyen, and the youth league's rotund supremo, Collen Maine, have demanded that he face the full might of the law. Barely a day goes by without some or other league or some or other feral KwaZulu-Natal politician rounding on Gordhan to demand his resignation.

In the midst of this, Gordhan has launched a counter-offensive. Two, it turns out, can play the game of legalese. He has applied to court for a ruling confirming that he was in no legal position to intervene in the stand-off between the banks and the Guptas. To back up his argument, he submitted to court - and therefor to public scrutiny - a list of 72 transactions flagged as suspicious by the Financial Intelligence Centre.

Rumours swirled that President Jacob Zuma would use the spurious charges to fire Gordhan in a reshuffle. Perhaps the public revelation of private financial doings gave him pause. Remember that the Gordhan file merely lists the transactions. Should the matter ever come to court, the next step will be taken - the naming of those on the receiving end of these money movements, a list which is quietly being talked about in banking circles as including 'some very, very, senior people in government'. Gordhan appears to have won round two as well.

Which brings us to today's budget speech. It was, of course, all about government's finances - the collection of revenue, the allocation of money to departments and projects and how government should prevent spending too much of it foolishly.

But there was a subtext. Gordhan rose to speak to a standing ovation from all sides of the house, itself a powerful message to Zuma that he was up against a formidable enemy.

It didn't take long for Gordhan to mention the buffalo in the room. He quoted a Pedi saying, which translates as: "Lions that fail to work as a team will struggle to bring down even a limping buffalo". He quoted this twice, repeating it at the end of his speech. On both occasions there was loud applause.  During the first mention, he broke away from his prepared text to wonder aloud if the right "limping" buffalo was being targeted. The only conclusion that can be drawn from this reference is that Gordhan was talking about Zuma, who has limped from one crisis to another, most recently costing the ANC a large number of votes in the local government election.

Of course, the deception of unity was maintained. The two leaders shook hands cordially before the speech, even if Gordhan's expression betrayed incredulity.

The other political messages were equally clear. For a finance minister, Gordhan made a large number of references to "justice". Granted, he was sometimes talking about social justice - closing the gap between the rich and the poor - but it was a word which rung particularly loudly given his recent encounter with justice, Shaun Abrahams-style.

No fewer than 81 of the country's leading CEOs roused themselves from their slumber to come out in support of Gordhan and against the flimsy charges

—  BACKED BY BUSINESS

To underscore this, he dropped a quote from Martin Luther King into the speech: "Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable ... Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals."

Also at the centre of Gordhan's speech stood his belief in the need for government, business and labour to work as a cooperative triumvirate to invigorate the economy. This is where Gordhan derives his political strength. He may not enjoy the support of one or other of the ANC's internal "constituencies", but he has the confidence of business and labour, something without which the ANC knows it would struggle to govern.

Indeed, not long before the budget speech, no fewer than 81 of the country's leading CEOs roused themselves from their slumber to come out in support of Gordhan and against the flimsy charges.

Another leg of the speech was Gordhan's strong attack on corruption - a clear reference to the battle over "state capture" raging within the ANC.

After a discourse mentioning the priorities of various ministers, Gordhan had this to say:

"Progress in all these areas will depend also on our clear commitment to the rule of law, transparency, accountability, competitiveness and value for money. It is time to re-confirm this social contract. It is time to re-build trust. It is time to make hard decisions. It’s up to us."

To loud applause he quoted "my own political organisation, the ANC" on corruption:

"As articulated in the ANC’s 52nd National Conference Resolutions:Corruption is a systemic and institutional phenomenon involving all sectors of society and undermines democratic  processes and corporate governance and erodes social cohesion and values. Measures to combat corruption must deal with both those who are corrupt as well as those who are corrupted.”

Another quote: "All too often in history, the benefits of progress have been appropriated by narrow elites. War and conquest, colonisation, exclusive trading licenses, protection rackets, monopolisation of markets, secret cartels and discriminatory laws – there are so many ways in which wealth has been accumulated by the few while inequality and class divisions have been entrenched."

He referred to perhaps the most under-reported major programme of the Treasury - to clean out government contracts. It is this, more than anything else, which has brought Gordhan into conflict with the corrupt.

Here's what he said:

"Contracts are being renegotiated with airlines, hotel groups, software suppliers, pharmaceutical companies, property owners and construction firms. This aims to achieve savings of R25 billion a year by 2018/19.

Instead of caving in under political pressure, Gordhan had absorbed it and then flung it back, laced with dark humour

—  DARK HUMOUR

"The eTender portal was introduced in May last year. It has seen over R80 billion in tenders published, saving R650 million a year in printing and advertising costs."

This movement of government procurement into a transparent public space severely limits the capacity for the corrupt to benefit from state contracts.

Gordhan's final political move was to back nuclear procurement under the auspices of Eskom, but with some strong caveats. This is what he said:

"Security of energy supply is a cornerstone of sustainable growth. Within the framework of the Integrated Resource Plan, it has been confirmed that Eskom will take the lead in the nuclear power initiative. The Treasury will work with Minister Brown’s department and Eskom to ensure that the scale and phasing of the programme are in South Africa’s best interests and that the procurement arrangements are transparent and compliant with the law."

Previous budgets have not gone so far as to approve of the idea of nuclear procurement, so this is a shift. But Gordhan has placed the procurement within the strait-jacket of financial discipline - "the framework of the Integrated Resource Plan", a document which speaks of a slow graduated acquisition on a limited scale rather than the massive "fleet" of power stations that Zuma has desperately been pushing through.

The second leg of his energy comment chastised Eskom over its decision to cut back on procurement from independent power producers. He said: "Contrary to the views of some, these are sound and sensible long-term investments. A total of 64 projects are already in progress, bringing investment, jobs, clean energy and community development."

By the time Gordhan came to mention the "limping buffalo" for a second time near the end of his speech, it was clear that the limp was now more pronounced. Instead of caving in under political pressure, Gordhan had absorbed it and then flung it back, laced with dark humour.

* The slippers were silver in the book