The inexplicable axing of Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene shows a serious crisis in the country’s leadership, the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) said on Thursday.
“The EFF rejects the piecemeal cabinet reshuffle by [President] Jacob Zuma as a sign of a serious pathological crisis in the leadership and direction of the country,” the EFF said.
“Zuma has appointed him because he knows that David van Rooyen will not stand up to him when he wants to do wrong things. Van Rooyen will be so eternally grateful, absolutely starstruck that anything Zuma asks for will go.”
The party said it believed Nene was axed for refusing to take instructions “from Zuma and his friends” in both business and state owned enterprises.
“Nene refused to give South African Airways (SAA) guarantees and bailout when chairperson of the board [Dudu Myeni] requested it. Nene also refused to buy Zuma a new luxurious private jet and declined to grant Zuma’s staff exemptions from using expensive hotels and flying first class.”
Zuma removed Nene from his position on Wednesday night, after which the rand tumbled to a record low in the wake of the latest downgrade of the country’s credit rating.
Van Rooyen is the whip of Parliament’s standing committee on finance, and also serves as whip of the economic transformation cluster. He was previously the mayor of Merafong municipality in Gauteng.
Nene was appointed as finance minister in May last year and succeeded Pravin Gordhan.